Pregnant Woman Shot Dead While Breaking Up Fight Just Hours After Baby Shower

A 31-year-old pregnant woman was fatally shot in Manhattan, New York, while allegedly attempting to break up a fight after her baby shower.

Authorities were responding to calls of a woman shot at West 128th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard in Harlem early Sunday morning when they found Shanice Young unconscious and unresponsive, ABC 7 reported, citing police. She had a gunshot wound to her head.

Young, who was reportedly eight months pregnant with her third child, was taken to NYC Health + Hospitals, where she was pronounced dead. Her unborn child also did not make it.

Young was carrying presents from her baby shower into her apartment building when her ex-boyfriend appeared and confronted her current partner, New York Daily News reported, citing police and witnesses.

"[The gunman] came in chasing the boyfriend. They ran through here and out the other side and they ran downstairs," Jose Morales, the 46-year-old superintendent of Young's building, told the outlet.

Young tried to intervene and make peace between the two men after the scuffle spilled onto the street. Her ex-boyfriend then allegedly shot her in the head, police said. She was reportedly slain in front of her two daughters, aged 6 and 15.

The gunman ran off after the woman was hit. Police have not made any arrests nor released any identifying information for a potential suspect.

"I just can't sleep. I guess I'm in shock. The whole of Harlem is mourning right now," said the victim's 57-year-old father, Thurman Young.

"She was going to have her baby in five days. She said, ‘This baby is coming in five days, Daddy, get ready.’ I said ‘I’ll be ready.’ That’s the last thing she said to me," he added.

Three orders of protection were secured by Young against her ex-boyfriend following their breakup, her father claimed.

"Shanice was scared to death of him," Thurman said.

"She put him out because he was cheating on her. Then [he] does this because she had another boyfriend," he added.

The shooting caused an uproar in the Harlem community, according to ABC 7. A memorial was held outside of Young's apartment building, which she had moved into about three years ago to take care of her sick mother.

Young had been raising her two daughters as well as her two younger siblings after her mother died of ovarian cancer about a year ago, friends said.

"She was there any time of the day. If you needed a plate of food or a bottle of water, she was there. If you needed a coat or a sweater, she was there," said a friend of Young's who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of the shooter.

"She was just a beautiful person. It's so sad. I wish it would have never happened," the building superintendent said.

An investigation into the incident has been opened.