A judge sentenced a Bronx man to 15 years in federal prison on Tuesday for illegally having ammunition in a 2023 incident that left a 5-year-old girl in the hospital in serious condition, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
Police said Austin Morrishow, 27, and his codefendant, 28-year-old Clayton White, mistook a car backfiring for gunshots and immediately sprayed bullets at fleeing cars on June 30, 2023, on White Plains Road near East 213th Street in Williamsbridge.
One bullet struck and seriously injured a five-year-old girl who was sitting in the back seat of her father’s tan sedan, according to court records.
Prosecutors said Morrishow pleaded guilty in March and was given the maximum sentence on Tuesday after being on the run for eight months.
“Morrishow’s brazen acts left a bullet in a five-year-old child’s chest,” U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said in a statement. “Instead of accepting responsibility, Morrishow remained a fugitive for eight months.Today’s sentence sends an important message: if you threaten the lives of innocent New Yorkers through senseless gun violence, we will find you and prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law.”
Court documents included still images from surveillance cameras in the area, which appear to show Morrishaw taking cover behind a parked car and firing bullets down the street. Prosecutors said the shot, which narrowly missed the young girl’s vital organs, came from the .40 caliber pistol, which Morrishow was found to have fired.
The young men were on the street attending a vigil for someone who was shot and killed the day before. Prosecutors highlighted the grim similarities.
“Austin Morrishow and his co-defendant, Curtis White, fired several shots while attending a sidewalk vigil for someone who, in a sad twist of irony, was killed in a shooting,” said U.S. Attorney Clayton.
Morrishow fled immediately and evaded authorities for eight months until his arrest in February 2024. He previously served 60 months in prison for a federal firearms conviction and was on supervised release at the time of the shooting. White, who was arrested shortly after the incident, was also prohibited from possessing a firearm due to a prior state conviction.
Morrishow admitted to knowingly possessing ammunition illegally when submitting a guilty plea, but gave no details about the shooting itself, according to court transcripts.
Attorneys for Morrishow could not be reached for comment.
White was sentenced earlier this month to 51 months in prison and three years of supervised release, and both men were ordered to pay restitution to the young victim.
