Police in San Antonio, Texas, opened fire and killed a armed suspect on Thursday afternoon, but a stray bullet also killed 6-year-old Kameron Prescott in the process. The sheriff involved called it a "tragic accident."
According to the Chicago Tribune, Bexar County authorities tracked down the suspect, Amanda Jones, 30, for car theft and other crimes. After being pursued for two hours, she attempted to break into a trailer when she was shot down by the deputies, oblivious to the young boy behind the door. Jones was unrelated to the residents inside the home inside Pecan Grove mobile home park.
Sheriff Javier Salazar claimed he didn't know anybody was home.
The stray bullet struck one of the walls of the trailer and pierced Prescott's torso, and he was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital.
Salazar issued a statement at a news conference.
In my opinion it's a tragic accident that led to the death of this young man. We are looking into all of it. Internal Affairs is still investigating it. But again preliminarily it appears that policies and procedures (on use of force) were complied with.
The pursuit began with the call of the stolen vehicle involving a known suspect with outstanding felony warrants. The Tribune reported:
Deputies had seen the woman earlier Thursday brandishing a handgun and they believed she was holding a firearm when they confronted her on the trailer's porch and shot her multiple times, the sheriff said. She was found to have a dark pipe, but investigators found no gun at the shooting scene, although they continued to search for one along the route where the pursuit occurred, he said.
Salazar said Jones tried to break into several homes in the park while fleeing from authorities before reaching the trailer belonging to the Prescott family. Kameron happened to be home from school that day because the students were released at noon for the Christmas weekend.
"The deputies are of course understandably shaken up from this whole incident," Salazar said. "Officer-involved shootings are traumatic enough. Add to this one the death of an innocent 6-year-old and it's that much more troubling."
Four of the deputies involved in Thursday's shooting have been put on administrative leave.
The boy's first-grade teacher, Shanda Ince, issued a statement released by the Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City Independent School District.
Kameron was the kindest-hearted little boy that I have ever had the pleasure of teaching.
Twitter was understandably outraged and wouldn't accept the incident merely as a "tragic accident."
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