A 9-year-old girl has died after she was struck by a bullet fired by a man who had just been been robbed, Houston police said Tuesday.
She is the second 9-year-old girl to be shot in the city within a week.
The robbery victim, 41-year-old Tony D. Earls, was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, the Houston Police Department said.
Police Executive Chief Matt Slinkard said Tuesday that the robbery occurred around 9:45 p.m. on Monday at a Chase drive-through ATM in southeast Houston.
The suspect approached on foot while the robbery victim was in his vehicle at the ATM and robbed him at gunpoint, police said.
"The shooting suspect first shot at the robbery suspect, who was fleeing on foot, and then at a pickup truck he thought the robbery suspect had gotten into," police said.
The pickup was not involved in the robbery and instead had a family of five inside. The 9-year-old girl was struck in the head as she sat in the back seat, police said.
The girl was hospitalized in critical condition and was later pronounced dead, police said.
Her father, Armando Alvarez, identified the girl as Arlene Alvarez, NBC affiliate KPRC of Houston reported.
Alvarez said Tuesday that he told his daughter to get down when the gunfire began, but she had headphones on and didn't hear him.
"She didn’t feel nothing," he said. "She had her headphones on. By the time I turned around he was gone."
Witness Joe Maldonado told KPRC that he got out of his car to see what was going on and the father asked him to call 911.
"He pulled over the on the side of the sidewalk there and he sat down with his little girl ...," Maldonado told KPRC.
The young girl "just started coughing and crying, and she was speaking, but it was in a real low, low voice, and her dad was talking to her trying to calm her down," Maldonado said.
The girl was found unresponsive when officers arrived, the police report said. The unknown robbery suspect remains at large, police say.
The shooting comes after Ashanti Grant, also a 9-year-old Houston girl, was shot in the head last week as she sat in the back seat of her parents car. She was hospitalized in critical condition.
In that case, police say a road rage incident led the suspect to shoot at Grant's family's car as they were on their way to the grocery store.
On Monday, Mayor Sylvester Turner urged people to submit tips that may help lead to the arrest of those responsible for Grant's shooting and raised the $5,000 reward for information to $30,000.
In an email to NBC News, Turner said, "One shooting is one shooting too many."
The mayor said there are "too many guns on the streets" and said he announced a $1 million gun buyback program earlier this year.
"The Firearm Carry Act of 2021 allows individuals 21 and up to carry a handgun without a license or training. This is adding to the problem," Turner said.
"The City is doing its part to keep Houstonians safe, and we need help from state leaders."
