A 5-year-old Texas girl was killed and two of her siblings were injured after someone allegedly opened fire on their family’s vehicle in what authorities are investigating as a road-rage shooting.
Jeremy Porter, 47, was arrested Sunday, Sept. 20, and charged with capital murder in connection with the death of Zah’Layah Walter, according to Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez and county court records.
The shooting happened late Saturday night on Grant Road near Jones Road in northwest Harris County, outside Houston.
Zah’Layah’s mother, Monica Hicks, told local reporters she had been driving home from her mother’s house with all five of her children when gunfire suddenly erupted.
“All my kids in the back seat were screaming, and they continued to shoot in my car,” Hicks told KHOU.
Court records say Hicks heard a rear window shatter and saw a white Ford pickup truck speed past. She did not realize Zah’Layah had been shot until she reached her apartment complex and found her daughter bleeding in the back seat.
Hicks called 911 and tried to help her daughter while waiting for paramedics.
Zah’Layah was airlifted to a hospital but was pronounced dead. Two other children in the vehicle suffered non-life-threatening injuries from shattered glass, authorities said.
“She was the light of my life,” Hicks said of her daughter.
Investigators used automated license plate readers to identify a white Ford pickup they believed was connected to the shooting. The technology helped lead detectives to Porter, Sheriff Gonzalez said.
According to court documents reviewed by the Houston Chronicle, Porter allegedly admitted to investigators that he was driving the truck and fired five rounds at Hicks’ vehicle.
The same records say Porter claimed he believed the other vehicle had fired at him and was driving erratically. Hicks disputed that account, telling Fox 26 she never confronted the other driver, cut him off or honked her horn.
Investigators reportedly found four apparent bullet strikes in Hicks’ vehicle.
Porter remained in the Harris County Jail Monday following a probable cause hearing. He is scheduled to appear in the 338th District Court on Tuesday, and prosecutors have filed a motion seeking to deny him bail, according to court reporting.
The capital murder charge is an allegation, and Porter is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.
Gonzalez said detectives worked through the night to identify a suspect and credited the automated plate-reader system with helping them develop critical information quickly.
For Zah’Layah’s family, however, the arrest does little to ease the loss of a little girl whose mother says was simply riding home with her brothers and sisters when bullets tore through their car.
