AI Character Upper Body Pitch and Yaw

My project has an AI Character that tracks my player character when the player chapter passes within its vision cone. The AI character shoots at the player. All that works fine. My issue is when player character is above or below the AI character, the entire AI character rotates up and down to follow the player. The AI Anim Blueprint is using the same animations and blends as the player character. My player character is able to pitch and yaw 90 degrees with no issue while not moving or while walking.

What should be done to the AI character to make his upper body (from spine_01) rotate and pitch independently from the lower body?