Gunman kills girl, 8, after car accident
Authorities unsure if victim was shot in crossfire or fit of rage
Latoyia Thomas was just five minutes from home after getting her hair braided early Saturday morning.
The 39-year-old had ventured to a new hair stylist on FM 1960. After a long day, she was eager to make it home around 2 a.m. with her 8-year-old daughter, DeMaree Atkins, who was sound asleep in the back seat.
“I was going through the light and through my peripheral vision I could see a car coming at a high rate of speed,” Thomas said. “We collided.”
A speeding Pontiac collided with her black Honda Accord in the intersection of Beltway 8 and West Fuqua.
“I called her name and I said,
Are you OK?” Thomas remembers asking her daughter after the accident.
“Yeah I’m OK. What happened mama?” DeMaree asked.
That’s when another car drove up, Thomas said. She remembers seeing a woman step out of a car and begin firing shots.
“I don’t know who it was and I don’t know why she was shooting,” Thomas said.
After shots were fired, Thomas didn’t even realize her daughter was injured until she tried to take her out of the car. That’s when she noticed the blood on her jacket.
“I told her to stay with me, stay with me,” Thomas said, breaking down into tears. “Her body just went limp.”
Paramedics transported DeMaree to the hospital, where she later died. Thomas was not injured.
Houston police are seeking answers in the deadly shooting. “We don’t know if they were firing at each other and struck the vehicle, or if once the accident happened, they got angry, jumped out and they shot the vehicle,” said HPD homicide detective David Stark. “We just don’t know.”
Between five and seven shots were fired, Stark said.
Thomas doesn’t usually travel on the Beltway, but that night she decided to.
“I should’ve taken a different route,” she said.
The grief-stricken mother said she’d do anything for more time with her daughter, who was an honor roll student at Houston ISD’s MacGregor Elementary and who had just begun learning to play the violin.
“I wanted to see her teenage years,” Thomas said. “I want to go and pick out prom dresses for my baby. I wanted to see her get married.”
Melvin Jarmon said he spoiled rotten DeMaree, his granddaughter, who he describes as a “girly girl.” The pair would eat out together frequently.
“She was going to be somebody special,” Jarmon said. “That was my heart.”
Thomas, who also has a 17-year-old son, said she is still trying to make sense of why someone would shoot at people they didn’t know.
“She did not deserve that,” Thomas said. “She was innocent. She had her whole life to look forward to.”
Police are looking for the drivers. The white Pontiac was left at the scene. The other driver fled in a dark, four-door sedan.
There are no suspects in custody and no motive known for the shooting.
Houston Crime Stoppers is offering a reward of up to $5,000 for any information leading to an arrest and filing of charges. Anyone with information should call HPD Homicide Division at 713308-3600 or Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS.
Thomas hopes for justice for her daughter.
“If the person has any conscience, any heart, please turn yourself in,” she said.