According to police, a man who was robbed at gunpoint at an ATM in southeast Houston fired in an attempt to stop his assailant but instead shot a 9-year-old girl in a truck moving nearby. The girl later died at a hospital.
Arlene Alvarez was on life support when she died on Tuesday, according to her father, Armando Alvarez.
When the shooting began Monday evening, Alvarez said Arlene was sitting in the backseat of his truck, wearing headphones.
“She was the only one who didn’t get down when we were initially shot at and I instructed everyone to ‘get down.'” “She didn’t hear what I was saying,” Alvarez claimed.
Tony Earls, 41, was charged with aggravated assault with serious bodily injury in the shooting on Tuesday, according to police. On a $30,000 bond, he was being held at the Harris County Jail. There was no counsel listed in court documents who could speak on his behalf.
Arlene’s death was disclosed immediately after Earls was charged by the police. Prosecutors will consider boosting Earls’ charges, according to Dane Schiller, a spokesperson for the Harris County District Attorney’s Office.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the Alvarez family.”We’ll look at all of the evidence, apply the law, and figure out what charges are warranted,” Schiller said.
On Monday night, Executive Assistant Police Chief Matt Slinkard described the shooting as “an unbelievably awful act.”
Arlene is the second 9-year-old girl in less than a week to be shot in Houston. After getting shot in the head during a road rage attack on Feb. 8, Ashanti Grant is still in the hospital.
Earls and his wife were at the ATM at 9:45 p.m. on Monday when another man approached their vehicle and robbed them at gunpoint, according to Slinkard.
Earls got out of his car and started firing as the robbery suspect ran on foot, police said, including at a pickup truck he assumed the robbery suspect had hopped inside.
The pickup carrying a family of five, on the other hand, was not involved and was “just driving” down a street near the ATM, according to Slinkard.
“It just goes to illustrate that anytime guns are involved, the risk to innocent bystanders is exceedingly great,” Slinkard added.
When the incident occurred, Alvarez stated he was driving his family to Arlene’s favorite restaurant. When he heard the gunshots begin, he claimed his impulse was to speed up and get away from the situation.
“What are you doing as soon as I speed up?” You’re already approaching him. You’re heading straight for the shooter. So I believe as I sped up, he mistook me for that guy,” Alvarez explained.
Earls later told police that he had no idea his bullets had damaged the truck when he called to report the crime.
The robbery suspect was being sought by police. They haven’t established whether the man fired back or was shot.
Several youngsters have been shot in the Houston region this year.
An 11-year-old child was tragically shot while walking from his apartment to his family’s car to retrieve his coat on February 3. A 13-year-old boy was shot many times and injured outside a grocery shop on February 8. Someone shot into George Floyd’s 4-year-old niece’s Houston apartment as she was sleeping on New Year’s Day, injuring her.
Houston officials proposed a $44 million plan earlier this month to combat rising violent crime in the nation’s fourth-largest city. Houston, like other major cities around the United States, has seen an increase in violent crime in recent years as a result of the pandemic.
In 2021, overall crime in Houston decreased by 3.4 percent, with a 12 percent decrease in sexual assaults, an 11.4 percent decrease in robberies, and a ten percent decrease in burglaries.
Last year though, homicides jumped by more than 18% to 479. Houston police have reported 62 killings so far this year as of Tuesday morning, up 32% from the same time period in 2021, when there were 47. There were 40 at the same time in 2020.
The recent spike in homicides is still well below Houston’s all-time record of 701 homicides in 1981 when the city was branded the United States’ murder capital.
Mayor Sylvester Turner said officials would “go the additional mile” to safeguard children from violent crime during a news conference Monday announcing a $30,000 prize for information in the shooting of Ashanti Grant.
“These are our children, and this nonsense has to come to an end,” Turner said.
