Police last night were scouring the city for two suspects wanted in connection with the Easter-day killing of a 2-year old in the Bronx.

David Pacheco Jr., called Didi by family members, was riding in a van with his parents and two sisters on Sunday when two men opened fire on a rival group across an intersection. One of the bullets pierced the van as it drove by, hitting David in the back. He died less than an hour later at Bronx-Lebanon Hospital.

Police identified Bronx residents Nicholas Morris, 26, and Ronneil “Burger” Gilliam, 25, as their prime suspects. Morris is the alleged shooter. Police sent out photos of the two men to all officers on patrol in the five boroughs, including housing and transit police.

Police searching Morris’s apartment at 1926 University Ave. found a .22 caliber rifle and a small amount of narcotics. The suspect’s brother, who was not identified last night, was in the apartment at the time and was arrested. Charges were pending.

Earlier in the day, Pacheco’s mother, Joanna Sanabria, stood bowed with grief outside the family’s apartment on Bruckner Avenue and gave a tremulous message to the killer.

“God only knows how much I wished that bullet hit me,” she said, clutching one of David’s stuffed animals. “To the person who shot my car … I hope every day you go to sleep you see my son’s face, you hear my voice.”

Just before 2 p.m. on Sunday, Morris and Gilliam were walking on Harrison Avenue when they ran into a Hispanic man, whom police won’t identify because he is considered a witness.

“Hard looks were exchanged,” a New York Police Department spokesman, Paul Browne, said. He said one of the two suspects slapped the Hispanic man hard across the face, but when they spotted three more of the man’s friends approaching, they fled to Gilliam’s apartment down the street at a building called Las Palmas at 1878 Harrison Ave.

Minutes later, they returned with a 9mm gun, Mr. Browne said. The rival group was standing across the intersection. Morris allegedly took aim and fired five shots. During this time, Mrs. Sanabria’s van crossed the intersection heading east on West Tremont Avenue and was hit by a bullet. She drove a block before realizing her son had been shot.

“I heard the gunshot and he screamed out,” Mrs. Sanabria said.

A truck driver and part-time emergency worker, Angel Cruz, 42, also heard the shots and ran into the street, where he found Mrs. Sanabria pulling the near-lifeless body of David from his child seat. He tried to administer CPR on the child on the hood of the car, but had no success in reviving him. The two hailed a livery cab and sped to Bronx-Lebanon Hospital, with Mr. Cruz performing CPR on David in the backseat.

“In the car, the baby opened his eye for a minute and stretched out,” Mr. Cruz said. “It was like a despidieudose – a final farewell – for the mother. His mother leaned over and kissed him.”

Doctors were able to get David breathing again for a short time, allowing his father, David Pacheco Sr., to say goodbye, Mr. Cruz said. The child died at 2:45 p.m.

Near the site where Mrs. Sanabria pulled the car over, residents of Morris Heights have placed a makeshift memorial. A single white candle in a glass jar stood lit below a sign that read: “To the mother. We the parents of the Block offer are forgiveness. Our prayers are with your child. Maybe this will wake up the city.”

During interviews with the Hispanic man whom one of the suspects allegedly slapped, police learned the nickname of one the two men was “Burger.” Using the Real-Time Crime Center’s nickname database they discovered that Gilliam – who has previous arrests for criminal possession of a weapon, marijuana possession, sale of a controlled substance, and robbery – went by that nickname and lived just a block away from the crime scene. Additional interviews identified Morris as the gunman and confirmed the two were likely suspects, police said. Morris has previous arrests for marijuana possession and trespassing.

The Hispanic man said he didn’t know the two men, leading police to speculate the fight wasn’t about a specific disagreement. The fight didn’t appear racially motivated, police said.

Mr. Cruz said the neighborhood was sinking back into its reputation for gang crime after a period of relative calm.

“Back in the 1990s, late ’80s, this area was really hot,” he said. “It got cleaned up for about 10 years. Now it’s starting to heat up again.”