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."
bang
No stories, but target verification is rule 1. I'd also make a point to find my kids, or know exactly where they were, before firing a gun in or near the house.
Sad, sad story. Makes me cry.
I have always preferred a 12 gauge with buck.
Effective and I think safer.
How could a 5-year-old girl wanting to be with mommy and daddy possibly simulate somebody trying to break in? Wouldn't people with half a brain expect a little girl coming in, before assuming a burglar?
This idiot needs to do some cell time - not confirming your target when you know there are family members in the house is beyond stupid.
Why was he aiming so low?? A 5 year old is what, about three feet tall? This story really smells bad.
Tragic, but how can you just shoot like that when you have kids in the house? It doesn't really make sense.
I grieve for this family and pray for their comfort in the midst of such tragedy. The greater tragedy is that they obviously live in a neighborhood where law and order is such that the first thing to consider wher hearing a strange noise is an intruder. It is amazing to me how much effort the US is putting into cleaning out the terrorists in Najaf when we bleat on and on about the civil rights of the terrorists who rule in cities like Philadelphia, Dallas, Los Angeles, Detroit, San Francisco, Oakland, and etc.
Free people cannot be free when they live in terror and this poor girl is just as much a victim of our criminal courts (notice I don't say 'justice') system as if a liberal judge had killed her himself.
He broke one of the four cardinal rules of gun handling - know your target and what's behind it.
If you live alone or with your spouse and you're in the room with your spouse, thinking someone coming through the door was a threat would make sense. But if you have children, you think someone opening your door is one of the children, not a burglar.
I have a five year old daughter who likes to come into our room in the middle of the night. Nothing sweeter than a ficve year old girl looking for love, comfort and security by crawling into her parents' bed at night.
I cannot stand that this happened. How could you shoot someone trying to open the bedroom door when you have a five year old in the house.
This story breaks my heart.
Truly horrific.
I would think that most parents are aware of the fact that little little kids enter bedrooms unannounced on a fairly frequent basis. I wonder if something else is going on here (besides gross negligence).
So using a shotgun would have only slightly killed the little girl? Is that your point? As far as target verification, that's easy to say on the range (or in an armchair), much more difficult in combat.
Against a little girl? She'd have died on the spot, not on the way to the hospital.
That being said, I have a short-barrelled marine shotgun, with built-in hi-intensity light, as my first line of defense, with a Glock 27 in the same location. But the first two rounds are birdshot - if that doesn't suffice, the following rounds are heavier.
No, it doesn't.
A very sad day.
This was a murder to cover up something.
Unless the family are all midgets, you don't shoot knee high at a burgler!
I agree. Some kind of stupid going on here. When you have small kids in the house hearing noises would make them come to mind before a burgler. Wonder if this guy thinks someone is after him? Pool little girl.
I don't think there is a good answer, to tell you the truth. Of course he should have verified his target, but keeping a handgun for home defense sometimes leads to poor decisions made when you're not even awake yet.
That said, how the heck did he shoot the little kid in the chest? His aim was way off if he was trying to shoot an intruder.
Same here. Of course, he could just be a terrible shot.
I agree. This guy should be arrested. Being stupid doesn't negate a crime. Neither does being sorry.
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