An eight-year-old girl was fatally shot following a car crash in Houston, Texas, early Saturday morning, police stated.
Patrol officers responded to reports of a collision at the intersection of the Beltway eight feeder road and Fuqua Street at around two a.m. neighborhood time. When officers arrived on scene, they learned that two or 3 automobiles had been traveling at high rates of speed southbound on Fuqua Street. 1 of the vehicles, a Pontiac, was struck at the intersection by a black Honda Accord traveling eastbound on the feeder road, according to the Houston Police Division.
Following the crash, an unknown individual opened fire on the Honda, striking eight-year-old De'Maree Adkins, who was in the vehicle with her mother. The girl was taken to a nearby hospital where she died from her injuries. The mother was not injured, according to the Houston Police Division.
Police told ABC News the incident is getting investigated as a homicide. Officers are now browsing for a dark colored, 4-door sedan that fled the scene. There had been no suspects in custody and no known motive for the fatal shooting at this time, police mentioned.
The victim's mother, Toyia Thomas, told ABC News the incident occurred as she was driving property with her daughter. Thomas took an exit south off the Beltway 8 and the traffic light at the intersection ahead turned from green to yellow as she approached. Thomas then noticed a auto coming from another direction at a high speed but she couldn't slow down in time and the automobiles collided, Thomas told ABC News.
Thomas said she right away checked on her daughter to make confident she was unharmed from the crash. De'Maree was still asleep in the backseat, she mentioned.
Thomas said she was about to get out of her vehicle when she saw a further car drive up and a lady get out with a gun. The woman then opened fire on her car or truck, Thomas told ABC News.
Thomas said she did not recognize her daughter had been shot till she took De'Maree out of the car or truck and saw a blood stain on her jacket. Thomas lifted up the girl's clothes and saw a bullet wound, she mentioned.
"In no way believed I'd be burying my eight-year-old daughter," Thomas told ABC News currently in an emotional interview. "That was my child."
Thomas said she does not know the other people involved in the automobile crash.
The mother is struggling to make sense of why her daughter was shot and believes this may well be a case of road rage. She described De'Maree as a "satisfied," "witty," intelligent," "entertaining-loving" eight-year-old girl who was an honor student at school and was finding out to play the violin.
"My daughter was complete of life," Thomas told ABC News as she wiped away tears from her eyes. "I can not watch her grow up."
ABC News' Katherine Carroll contributed to this report.
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