The young mom who was killed while walking with her baby on the Upper East Side spent the days and weeks leading up to her death selling her belongings so she could escape her allegedly abusive ex-boyfriend, locals said.
Azsia Johnson, 20, had been living at a domestic violence shelter in East Harlem with her 3-month-old daughter but when the infant’s father tracked down her whereabouts, she started selling her stuff to afford a new place to live.
“She said he knows where she is living. She try to leave, that’s why she selling me a lot of stuff,” said vendor India, 43, who hawks a variety of goods near East 104th Street and bought some of Johnson’s items.
“She was afraid. She didn’t want the father to know where she lived.”
Around 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Johnson made plans to meet up with her ex, who family and law-enforcement sources say previously assaulted her and “stalked” her, because she felt bad that her daughter didn’t have a father in her life.
But while the young mom of two was walking with the child in a stroller near the corner of East 95th Street and Lexington Avenue, an assailant dressed in black shot her in the head at point-blank range and fled.
She was pronounced dead soon after at Metropolitan Hospital, while the child was unharmed.
Law-enforcement sources said cops are looking to speak with the ex-boyfriend in connection with the murder and he’s considered a person of interest in the slaying. But so far, no arrests have been made.
A little over a week before her death, Johnson sold India diapers, baby formula, baby clothes and a baby carrier and had planned to come back with more goods but never showed up, the vendor said.
“I remember I said to her, ‘What happen? What happen? Talk to me.’ She said, ‘India, I try to leave. He follow me, he follow me,’” India recalled.
“I was waiting for her. She trying to bring more stuff.”
Johnson told India that she was trying to move out of the shelter and needed the money to find a new place.
“She was trying to leave because the [ex-]boyfriend was bothering her,” said India.
“It’s terrible … I feel bad … now she is dead.”