Nassau County District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly announced that an alleged Hempstead gang member was arraigned today on murder and attempted murder charges for the April drive-by shooting death of a Bronx school teacher, who was shot in her vehicle while her 10-year-old child sat in the back seat.
Oumar Barry, 27, of Hempstead, was arraigned before Judge Tammy Robbins on grand jury indictment charges of Murder in the Second Degree (an A-I felony); Attempted Murder in the Second Degree (a B violent felony); Assault in the First Degree (a B violent felony); and two counts of Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Second Degree (a C violent felony).
The defendant pleaded not guilty and was remanded. Barry is due back in court on January 23, 2024. If convicted, the defendant faces up to 25 years to life in prison.
A juvenile co-defendant was also indicted and arraigned before Judge Robbins on December 7, 2023, on the same charges.
“Kimberly Midgette was a beloved elementary school teacher at a public school in the Bronx and mother to a 10-year-old daughter. Her light was cruelly stolen from all those who cherished her when a hail of bullets entered her vehicle and killed her, and struck her friend,” said DA Donnelly. “Thankfully, Kimberly’s daughter, who was in the backseat of the car during the shooting, was unharmed. The child will now live with the tragic and senseless loss of her mother. Our thoughts are with Kimberly’s family, friends, and school community as they mourn her loss.”
DA Donnelly said that, according to the investigation and indictment, on April 1, 2023, at approximately 1:33 a.m., 44-year-old Kimberly Midgette pulled her Toyota Corolla in front of the residence of her ex-husband to drop off her 10-year-old child for the weekend.
Midgette and a friend were sitting in the front driver and passenger seat and the child was in the rear passenger seat.
Before they could exit the vehicle, a stolen black Honda Accord drove past Midgette’s vehicle and an occupant fired multiple rounds, fatally striking Midgette in the face and striking her friend in the arm.
The 10-year-old child was uninjured.
Prosecutors believe that Midgette was not the intended target of the shooting.
At the time of the murder, Barry was an alleged leader of the Blood Hound Brims, a violent street gang.
Barry was arrested on November 2, 2023, in Hempstead by detectives of the Nassau County Police Department’s Homicide Squad.
The NCDA thanks the Nassau County Police Department’s Homicide Squad, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, the Office of Homeland Security Investigations, and the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York for their assistance with the investigation.
Senior Litigation Counsel Kirk Sendlein of the Homicide Bureau is prosecuting this case. The defendant is represented by Jeffrey Groder, Esq.
The charges against the defendant are merely accusations and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless found guilty.