Posted on 08/16/2004 2:04:13 PM PDT by tx4guns
HOUSTON -- A 5-year-old girl's stepfather accidentally shot and killed the child after mistaking her for a burglar, according to law officers.
Struck in the chest with a single bullet, Alejandra Hernandez died Sunday after she was taken to LBJ Hospital in Houston.
Agun Ortega Pina told police he heard suspicious noises and reached for his gun about 1 a.m. He shot when someone tried to open the door of the bedroom where he and his wife were sleeping.
But the person Pina thought was breaking into his bedroom was actually his stepdaughter, who just wanted to be with her parents.
Pina, 25, of Houston has not been charged in the tragic case of mistaken identity. But police say the case will instead be referred to the Harris County Grand Jury.
Silverio Portillo said he was staying at the home when Pina fired the round that struck the child in the chest.
"I just woke up and Alejandra was right there on the floor," Portillo told the Houston Chronicle through an interpreter for Monday's editions.
Portillo said he then helped the parents carry their wounded child to the family's van.
"She was alive -- she was breathing," he said.
A family friend spoke with Pina soon after the little girl was shot at the Northeast Houston home.
"He has a broken heart," said Max Gutierrez. "He told me, 'I can't believe it. I feel bad."'
Shocked neighbors gathered across the street from the small woodframed house. They are helping with family expenses, distributing plastic buckets with the victim's photo in area restaurants and businesses. They said burglaries were a concern in the area.
"The family was very happy," said Sammy Gomez, a next-door neighbor. "We're all friends here."
Eleven-year-old Juan Rodriguez' parents told him about his best friend's death.
"She liked to play right here in the street," he said. "She was like my little sister. She liked to share everything."
And you know this based on your extensive research of evidence at the scene?
LOL! That makes sense. There is never any question in anyones mind as to who the Mother is, unless she is just carrying the kid for someone else. Before the advent of DNA, though, the daddy could not be proven beyond the shadow of a doubt.
It's actually kind of rare to those long-time Americans in the SW --- you won't find too many of them using two first names and two last names --- compare the phone book of most any SW city with that of one from Mexico. Most (not all) also pick names for their kids that translate fairly easily into English -- they might chose "Juan" because it can mean "John" and names like "Perfecta", "Innocencio", "Heriberto", "Agun" are not all that oftenly used. Usually those with those different kinds of names are immigrants.
It's not so confusing after a while --- but I've seen Americans of hispanic descent not understand that people in Mexico and other countries have 4 names and it's the two middle names they consider to be their first and last name. For example Maria de Guadalupe Garcia Lopez is Guadalupe Garcia and Jose Luis Lopez Garcia is Luis Lopez. Here on the border, if someone is using two last names, it's a pretty good bet their families were not here before 1985.
You have a point...
Regarding the source of stats.....I remember hearing this 10-12 years ago, when I had remarried my current husband, and had a young daughter from a disastrous first marriage.....and thinking, how awful this is for the good stepfathers, like my husband. I don't recall who did the studies.
If you do a google search though, you will see that social service agencies do consider it (biologically unrelated adult males in a household) in risk assessment of child abuse. Rightly or wrongly.
I agree with you that a stepparent can be a great blessing, as my husband has been for my daughter. He is now her Daddy, as he adopted her ten years ago this month.
Why do I get the feeling he was drunk.
I heard on an AM radio show this afternoon that the stepfather saw the open door and a silloutte appeared in it. He shot the sillouette. Only hear-say, but a probable scenario. He was scared of somebody coming for him. Stinks, don't it.
I have 3 kids. Every single one of them attempts to sleep with mom and dad at least once a week. Seems odd to me that he would not have considered the possibility before shooting.
What is wrong with this picture?
The idiot should have had his gun locked in a gun safe or it should have had a trigger lock on it. It is not safe to keep an unlocked, loaded gun beside your bed when there are small children in the house.
Unless this family lived in an absolutely horrific neighbor the husband and wife were both negligent and caused the death of their daughter.
It's been decades since I thought this way.
Now, I know that there is evil in the world and that there are evil people.
I don't for a moment believe that O.J. suffers at all now or that he spends any time searching for the "real killer". There are sociopaths in this world who would feel no remorse whatever for having taken a human life.
"The parents shared a bed with their three young daughters because the only other bedroom in the house is rented by another man, friends said. Police said Alejandra may have gotten up to use the bathroom and was returning to her parents' bed when she was mistaken for a burglar."
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