Baby shot in New Haven drive-by

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) -- A baby just over a year old was shot in a drive-by shooting in New Haven Wednesday, and the mayor and police chief vow to find the shooter.

16-month-old Tramire Miller was upgraded to fair condition early Thursday morning.

Miller and his aunt were sitting on a porch on Kensington St., around 2:30 p.m. Wednesday when a car pulled up and opened fire. Tramire was shot in the stomach. His father immediately scooped him up and ran the few blocks to the hospital, with his son in his arms.

Mayor John DeStefano saw little Tramire and his parents when he was transferred to Yale-New Haven's pediatric hospital.

"He wasn't crying," said Mayor DeStefano. "He was calm, he had a lot of people standing around him poking at him and I thought he was pretty good about the whole thing."

"It's getting worse up here, Connecticut," said Jeffrey Kennedy, of New Haven. Kennedy lived in the area for five years, but moved to North Carolina because of concerns with the violence. His children are still up here and he worries every day.

"No it's not safe for my kids up here," Kennedy said, "and they go to school and my son's daycare is right there, somebody was shooting there, so it's not safe."

His son's daycare is diagonally across the street. His daughter says, she's not allowed to play outside.

"I think it's really unsafe cause my mom says that it's a lot of shooting and a lot of gangsters where I live," said Naviyah Kennedy, "so I never come outside."

And as police shut down the streets around Kensington and Edgewood and secured the scene, city leaders expressed their anger and disbelief that a child so small could already be a victim.

"But this violence belongs to us all and only together do we just say, we have to stop it, a child of New Haven is a child of us all," said Chief Dean Esserman, New Haven Police Department.

Police say they are now looking for a blue, black or dark-colored car, possibly an Altima, Acura or other type of Honda. We're told they do have some substantial leads, but are asking anyone with information to contact them.