UPDATE: 44-year-old Clarkson Wilson who fathered at least one of Imani Armstrong’s three children, is accused of lying in wait for the young mom as she headed home from a second job at IHOP.
ORIGINAL STORY: A 25-year-old New York woman was fatally shot in the East Village Thursday morning.
The victim was shot in the head along East 14th Street near Irving Place just after 5 a.m.
Authorities believe she was walking home from work at IHOP on East 14th Street when she was shot. She was pronounced dead on the scene.
The victim was identified as 25-year-old Imani Armstrong.
A man fled on foot north on Irving Place. No arrests were immediately made and the motive was unknown.
Armstrong had moved to the Big Apple from Virginia about three years ago to be with a woman who later became her wife, then kept communication with her family to a minimum, according to her aunt.
When her kin heard that Armstrong had been fatally shot by a masked gunman, they also learned she had been dancing and spent months in a shelter for domestic-abuse victims.
“She probably didn’t tell us because she knew we would have taken some type of action. We just found out,” her aunt Chanda Armstrong said. “All this was going on and no one knew.”
Imani, who danced at an unspecified club using the name “Red,” had recently separated from her wife and had two children in foster care when she was fatally shot. The family was left questioning why she didn’t come back home for help.
“She knew she could always come back here. I don’t know if it was pride or wanting to do it on her own that stopped her,” Chanda said. “We don’t blame, we don’t judge, we don’t knock you. That’s not the type of family we are. You went out of state, it didn’t work, you come back home. We are going to help you. It’s sad she didn’t reach out.”
Chanda is the eldest of nine of Imani’s aunts and uncles and said she had custody of one of her niece’s children, 7-year-old Lilliana, for a short time. Imani’s heartbroken father and other family members are now trying to get Imani’s children out of foster care, she said.
“I pray that no one has told the children, especially ‘Lilly.’ I want the family to tell them first,” she said. “Lilly was really, really close to her. We’d know how to talk to her. She might need counseling. We’d be able to get her the help she needs to process it.”
Imani was born in Virginia and spent several years in Texas with her grandmother who raised her before she returned about eight years ago, Chanda said. It was there she had Lilliana, who was named after the grandmother. Imani also had a second child, a boy while in Virginia. A third child was put up for adoption, the aunt said.
But around 2018, Imani started a relationship with her future wife and within months had followed her to the Big Apple. The family knew her kids ended up in foster care, but didn’t know the couple had married — or that their relationship grew troubled.
She would call periodically, sometimes asking for money — but largely kept her family in the dark, her aunt said.
“She didn’t say what was going on in her life because the family disapproved of that girl so she kind of kept us out of her life at that point,” Chanda said. “We didn’t know she was dancing. We are kind of a religious family so we may not have approved of it but we would not have judged her for it.”
Armstrong had finished her overnight shift at IHOP at around 5 a.m. on Thursday and was on her way to the 14th Street subway when she was shot near Union Square, cops and sources said. Surveillance footage obtained by cops showed that the shooter was waiting for Armstrong across the street as she walked out of the restaurant, sources said.
The assailant is seen in the footage following Armstrong before running up behind her and firing a shot, according to the sources. The suspect, who is still at large, then ran northbound on Irving Place, the sources added.
While police only released a vague description about the suspect, Mayor Eric Adams revealed later Thursday morning that the violence was not random.
“It appears as though the young lady was an intended target, we are unclear yet but we are going to continue, the investigation is still new,” Adams said. “We don’t have much more than that at this time, but again, it really highlights what the governor and I talked about yesterday and what we are continuing to talk about — the over-proliferation of guns on our streets and people using them for violent means.”
Coffee cart owner John P. heard that single gunshot as he was setting up for the day. And he said he knew exactly what it was.
“Lately it’s becoming normal in the city, it’s every day, every single day, if it’s not in the city it’s in the Bronx, it’s in Brooklyn, it’s becoming normal,” John P. said.
Tell us your thoughts...