Police with the Broome County Sheriff’s Workplace responded to report of a girl and an toddler shot with a crossbow within the city of Colesville on June 26, 2023.

Once they arrived on the scene, police found two victims, a mom, Megan Carey, and her 17-day-old daughter Eleanor, each of them having been shot with a crossbow. The alleged shooter, father Patrick Proefriedt, 28, was nowhere to be discovered.

Based on the Bulletin, the couple had been arguing over the infant crying when Proefriedt went into one other room and grabbed a crossbow. He returned and fired on the pair, per police, with the bolt reportedly putting the toddler in her higher torso, exiting close to her armpit earlier than hitting her mom within the chest.

Megan Carey was launched from the hospital later that very same day with non-life threatening accidents. Her child was pronounced lifeless on the scene.

“After the defendant on this case took the lifetime of his personal baby, he bumped into the woods and hid like a scared rat. A scared rat,” mentioned Broome County Sheriff Fred Akshar in a press convention attended by CBS affiliate WBNG.

The bolt struck his spouse within the chest and his daughter within the shoulder, in response to the information station. After the capturing, per police documentation, Proefriedt reportedly pulled out the bolt after which hid his spouse’s telephone so she could not name for assist earlier than he fled in his truck.

However, Carey was in a position to name 911, with prosecutors taking part in the 22-minute audio of her telephone name at his sentencing Friday morning as she fought to maintain her daughter alive. She was heard saying, “Stick with Mommy,” and, “Please do not die,” earlier than her daughter succumbed to her accidents.

Whereas handing down his sentence, Choose Joseph F. Cawley mentioned, “Nobody can presumably perceive what Megan went by means of these final twenty-two minutes of Eleanor’s life.”

After their arrival on the scene, authorities shortly launched an aerial seek for Proefriedt. In coordination with New York State Police and Chenango County Sheriff’s Workplace deputies, they have been in a position to kind a fringe across the space.

With a number of patrol items on the hunt and an aerial drone, police discovered Proefriedt throughout the hour hiding within the woods lower than a mile from his residence after his car had grow to be caught within the mud. He was swiftly taken into custody.

Broome County District Legal professional Paul Battisti informed WBNG that the suspect confirmed no regret for his actions throughout police interrogation. “At no cut-off date did he ever ask how’s my spouse? How’s my three-week-old baby? He by no means confirmed any regret,” Battisti mentioned.

As an alternative, in response to the DA, Proefriedt “talked about the way it wasn’t that huge of a deal, and I will be out of right here as quickly as attainable.” He additionally reportedly blamed his spouse for the incident, claiming that she “dared him” to shoot.

In court docket on Friday for Proefriedt’s sentencing, Carey spoke out. “Regardless of all the pieces that has occurred, I nonetheless imagine in love, I nonetheless imagine in therapeutic, I imagine in forgiveness, however he’s past forgiveness,” she mentioned of her husband. “He has no empathy and no humanity.”

Earlier than his sentencing, in response to Legislation & Crime, Proefriedt reportedly did apologize to his spouse “for the sake of my baby.”

“Right now’s sentence displays the gravity of Patrick Proefriedt’s heinous actions,” mentioned Battisti in a press launch from the DA Workplace. “The court docket’s choice ensures he won’t ever once more pose a menace to a different harmless life. Whereas no sentence can undo the devastating hurt triggered, this final result affirms our dedication to pursuing justice and standing firmly with victims and their households within the face of unthinkable violence.”

“I am appreciative of Choose Cawley handing down the utmost sentence,” Broome County Sheriff Frederick J. Akshar II mentioned at a information convention after the listening to, per the Staten Island Advance, “However in a case like this, 25 years would not appear acceptable. A pine field appears acceptable to me.”