July 4 gunfire injures 3 kids

Three Houston-area toddlers were critically injured by gun violence over the July Fourth holiday, including a freak incident in which a bullet struck fireworks in a family’s truck, causing the vehicle to erupt in flames and causing serious burns.

The shootings outraged Sheriff Ed Gonzalez, who tweeted on Friday about a 2-year-old shot in the head.

“Another child seriously injured in our city because of senseless violence,” the sheriff said on Twitter. “This must stop.”

Fourteen juveniles have been fatally shot in the Houston region so far in 2019, including Ivory West, a 2-year-old who was killed in Spring on Tuesday night when burglars allegedly ambushed the boy, his father and a friend in an apartment garage.

Just days later, three children were injured in two separate July 4 incidents.

The first stemmed from road rage in northwest Harris County. A father with two children in his car and another man exchanged words around 9 p.m. as they followed each other along Texas 249, authorities said.

They pulled into a gas station, where the shooter grabbed a gun from his vehicle, deputies said. The father started to get back into his car with his family when the suspect fired into the vehicle, igniting fireworks the family had just purchased.

They exploded inside and caused the vehicle to catch fire, deputies said.

The family left the parking lot before stopping on Texas 249. Two good Samaritans pulled the family from the vehicle and took them to an urgent care facility, authorities said.

The children were then taken by Life Flight to Galveston, where their current condition is unknown. Their mother and father were hospitalized with unspecified injuries.

The father told authorities the suspect drove a newer model, light-colored Ford Expedition with possibly three other people inside.

Hours later, a 2-year-old was shot in the head during a shootout between two people in the Greenspoint area, police said.

The girl was taken to the hospital in critical condition, but doctors said she is expected to survive, according to Houston police. The shooting, which police described as a drive-by, was first reported around 2 a.m. at the corner of Benmar and City View Place. Police said the child was in a car with her mother and father, along with at least one more adult, when someone in the car fired several rounds.

Police said another person fired back into the car and struck the child, who was sitting in the back passenger seat. Troy Finner, executive assistant chief for Houston Police Department, said the shooting might be gangrelated but noted the investigation is ongoing.

"Whoever is responsible for this kid, the best thing you can do ... is turn yourself in," Finner said. "We're batting a thousand in the city of Houston right now, and if anybody shoots or kills our kids, we're going after them."

The child was taken to a hospital by her parents, and a security guard there alerted police, Finner said.

Finner said investigators recovered around five or six bullet casings at the scene.