Toddler latest local child killed by gunfire
2-year-old slain after attackers opened fire on father, friend at apartment in Spring
Authorities are searching for gunmen who late Tuesday killed a 2-year-old boy during a robbery and ambush at an apartment garage in Spring, according to the Harris County Sheriff ’s Office.
The toddler, identified as Ivory T. West, died at the scene, becoming the latest Houston-area child to be slain this year as a result of seemingly unexplainable violence. The boy’s father and a friend were also shot and taken to the hospital in serious condition.
Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez who first identified the boy as “TJ,” drew comparisons to recent child deaths that have incited anger in the community and prompted nationwide attention.
“Kamren (Jones), Jazmine (Barnes), Maleah (Davis), and now TJ,” he said Wednesday on Twitter. “Remember their names & the many other young lives taken recently from our community due to senseless violence. The grief & anger are overwhelming. The death of a child is the worst trauma that any human can experience.”
Tuesday night’s shooting was first reported around 11:30 p.m. at an apartment in the 2800 block of Trailing Vine.
Deputies said the child was sitting with his father and his father’s friend in an open garage when two men approached them. The attackers almost immediately started shooting and struck the father possibly nine or 10 times, said Lt. R. Minchew with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office. The father’s friend was shot in the leg, and the
2-year-old was killed, authorities said.
The child’s mother was upstairs with a 1-month-old baby. She came downstairs when she thought she heard fireworks, and an attacker demanded money from her at gunpoint, deputies said.
She told the attackers they did not have any money. Later, the gunmen fled on foot south of the complex. Investigators don’t have a description of a possible getaway vehicle.
“We don’t know if there’s a backstory on this yet,” Minchew said. “It appears possibly that they targeted the father of the kids the way that he was immediately shot.”
One neighbor said the apartment complex is usually quiet, and West’s family is outside frequently. She requested not to be named to avoid being associated with the shooting.
“They’re always in their garage,” she said. “They’re not ever bothering nobody.”
Several residents recalled the shooting, telling reporters that they also heard the sound of fireworks. A man who lives in the apartment above the family said he heard one person below saying, “Just kick the door in.”
Sheriff’s office deputies on Wednesday were searching for two male suspects, ages 25 to 35, wearing a red hoodie and a black jacket. They are between 5-feet 10inches and 6-feet tall, authorities said.
West’s slaying follows a number of other child deaths that sparked intense searches for suspects.
Jazmine Barnes, 7, was gunned down in her mother’s car Dec. 30 in northeast Harris County, launching a manhunt for a white man seen at the time of the shooting amid growing tensions that the violence had been racially motivated.
Authorities later determined that the shooting was one of mistaken identity — two black man apparently thought they were aiming at a group with whom they had an altercation hours earlier, authorities said.
Maleah Davis was reported missing May 4, spurring a monthlong search for the 4year-old. Her mother’s ex-fiance initially came to police with a story that the girl disappeared after several men attempted to abduct him, the girl, and his son on the side of the road. He was later charged with tampering with evidence in the case, and Maleah was found dumped on the side of the road in Fulton, Ark.
Medical officials identified Maleah’s cause of death as “homicidal violence.” No one has been charged with murder.
And Kamren Jones, 11, was shot June 9 while sleeping in his family’s home in Channelview, and a 21-yearold was charged with murder. Authorities said the gunshots were fired possibly in a case of mistaken identity.
“We’re seeing more and more of this type of violence in Harris County lately, where people are shooting without provocation,” Minchew said.