HOUSTON – A 9-year-old girl is in critical condition after police said she was shot by a man that had been robbed at a drive-thru ATM in southeast Houston Monday.
It happened near Chase Bank at 2900 Woodridge around 9:45 p.m.
According to officers with the Houston Police Department, an unknown man approached another man and his wife at a drive-thru ATM and robbed him. Police said the man that had been robbed pulled out a gun and first shot at the robbery suspect, who was fleeing on foot, and then at a pickup truck he thought the robbery suspect had gotten into. The vehicle’s occupants, a family of five, were not involved in the robbery, HPD said. Investigators said a 9-year-old girl sitting in the rear passenger seat of the truck was struck in the head during the shooting.
Officers said the girl was transported to Memorial Hermann Hospital, where she remains in critical condition.
The shooting suspect, who is 41 years old, told police he was unaware that the gunfire may have struck the child. That man initially went home and called 911 to report the robbery. According to officers, he faces a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
Joe Maldonado, a witness who said he had been grocery shopping, heard the gunshots and stopped. Maldonado said he then called 911.
“He pulled over the on the side of the sidewalk there and he sat down with his little girl, and I finally got out of my vehicle to see what was going on. He asked me to call 911, police and an ambulance,” Maldonado said.
But before paramedics rushed the girl to the hospital, he says there were signs of hope.
“But then a few minutes later, she just started coughing and crying, and she was speaking but it was in a real low, low voice, and her dad was talking to her trying to calm her down,” Maldonado said.
Police said the robbery suspect still has not been caught. According to investigators, another woman was fatally shot near the same ATM in October.
Anyone with information in either this case or the robbery which preceded the shooting is urged to contact the HPD Homicide Division at (713) 308-3600 or Crime Stoppers at (713) 222-TIPS (8477).