Man shot, wife killed during walk with toddler

A young woman was killed and her husband, a Harvard PhD student, was wounded by gunshots while they were pushing their 3-year-old son’s stroller late at night, police and family members said. The child was not hit. 

The husband, Kashif Pervaiz, told authorities there were three attackers, according to Pervaiz’s childhood friend, Hyder Kahn.
 
Nasish Noorani of Brooklyn, N.Y., was walking the few blocks from her sister’s home to her father’s home in Boonton when the gunfire erupted, authorities said. Noorani was killed and Pervaiz was shot four times, police said.

Police would not confirm any other details about the shooting.

Pervaiz was alert and talking when he was taken to the hospital,
family members said. The couple’s other child was at home at the time of the shooting.
 
Family members said Noorani was a native of Karachi, Pakistan, while Pervaiz was originally from Brooklyn, N.Y. The couple married six years ago in Boonton, a suburban community about 30 miles from New York City that is a large Pakistani-American enclave.
 
Family members said Pervaiz graduated with honors from Columbia University and was studying for his doctoral degree in architecture and engineering at Harvard.
 
Noorani was wearing traditional Pakistani clothing at the time of the shooting, but family members and police said they did not believe itwas a bias act.

Waj Kahn, a first cousin of Noorani, said in the 15 years he’s lived in Boonton, he has never experienced any ethnic bias.
 
The husband’s brother, Mansoor Hassan of Brooklyn, told The Associated Press that the family was waiting for answers about why they were shot, and that he didn’t believe there were any witnesses.
 
“At nighttime, it’s a very dark way, and they don’t have any lights” on the street, Hassan said.
 
Hassan said the couple’s children are with their grandparents and other family members.
 
Associated Press writer Josh Lederman in Trenton, N.J.,
contributed to this story.