Man Shoots 17-Day-Old Daughter, Wife with Crossbow Because Baby Was Crying: Police

Police with the Broome County Sheriff's Office responded to report of a woman and an infant shot with a crossbow in the town of Colesville on June 26, 2023.

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

According to the Bulletin, the couple had been arguing over the baby crying when Proefriedt went into another room and grabbed a crossbow. He returned and fired at the pair, per police, with the bolt reportedly striking the infant in her upper torso, exiting near her armpit before hitting her mother in the chest.

Megan Carey was released from the hospital later that same day with non-life threatening injuries. Her baby was pronounced dead at the scene.

"After the defendant in this case took the life of his own child, he ran into the woods and hid like a scared rat. A scared rat," said Broome County Sheriff Fred Akshar in a press conference attended by CBS affiliate WBNG.

The bolt struck his wife in the chest and his daughter in the shoulder, according to the news station. After the shooting, per police documentation, Proefriedt reportedly pulled out the bolt and then hid his wife's phone so she couldn't call for help before he fled in his truck.

Nevertheless, Carey was able to call 911, with prosecutors playing the 22-minute audio of her phone call at his sentencing Friday morning as she fought to keep her daughter alive. She was heard saying, "Stay with Mommy," and, "Please don't die," before her daughter succumbed to her injuries.

While handing down his sentence, Judge Joseph F. Cawley said, "No one can possibly understand what Megan went through those last twenty-two minutes of Eleanor’s life."

After their arrival on the scene, authorities quickly launched an aerial search for Proefriedt. In coordination with New York State Police and Chenango County Sheriff's Office deputies, they were able to form a perimeter around the area.

With multiple patrol units on the hunt and an aerial drone, police found Proefriedt within the hour hiding in the woods less than a mile from his home after his vehicle had become stuck in the mud. He was swiftly taken into custody.

Broome County District Attorney Paul Battisti told WBNG that the suspect showed no remorse for his actions during police interrogation. "At no point in time did he ever ask how’s my wife? How's my three-week-old child? He never showed any remorse," Battisti said.

Instead, according to the DA, Proefriedt "talked about how it wasn't that big of a deal, and I'll be out of here as soon as possible." He also reportedly blamed his wife for the incident, claiming that she "dared him" to shoot.

In court on Friday for Proefriedt's sentencing, Carey spoke out. "Despite everything that has happened, I still believe in love, I still believe in healing, I believe in forgiveness, but he is beyond forgiveness," she said of her husband. "He has no empathy and no humanity."

Before his sentencing, according to Law & Crime, Proefriedt reportedly did apologize to his wife "for the sake of my child."

"Today’s sentence reflects the gravity of Patrick Proefriedt's heinous actions," said Battisti in a press release from the DA Office. "The court's decision ensures he will never again pose a threat to another innocent life. While no sentence can undo the devastating harm caused, this outcome affirms our commitment to pursuing justice and standing firmly with victims and their families in the face of unthinkable violence."

"I'm appreciative of Judge Cawley handing down the maximum sentence," Broome County Sheriff Frederick J. Akshar II said at a news conference after the hearing, per the Staten Island Advance, "But in a case like this, 25 years doesn't seem appropriate. A pine box seems appropriate to me."