Texas police are searching for two men who jumped out of a car and pumped 30 rounds from short-barreled AK47 type rifles called a Draco into a Bexar County townhome early Wednesday evening, killing a 4-year-old girl and wounding her parents and two older brothers.
Family members said the little girl’s name was Maryann. April Luna, the girl’s grandmother, told KSAT she was at the home when the shooting started.
“It was just so loud, and it just didn’t stop,” Luna said. “I walked downstairs, and all I saw was my granddaughter. They shot her in the face.”
A fourth child, a 3-year-old boy, was in the home at the time of the shooting but wasn’t hit. Luna said neighbors took care of him while first responders tended to the rest of the family.
The mother, Luna’s daughter, gave permission for KSAT to use the first names of her child. Michael, 7, was shot in the arm and abdomen, and 8-year-old Keanu was shot in the knee. The 25-year-old mom was shot in the stomach and hip, while the 27-year-old father was shot.
Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said those four victims are improving in the hospital. He released surveillance video from neighbors that captured the shooting. In one, an Infiniti Q50 drives past the home, and moments later the two gunmen run back and begin firing. The other video is much closer, shot from the victims’ next door neighbor’s camera.
“This was not a drive-by shooting where they shot from the street,” Salazar said, according to WOAI. “They wanted to get out and get up close and personal. They wanted to empty enough lead into that home to make sure that they inflicted maximum damage, to make sure that they killed somebody.”
Salazar said the bullets tumbled as they came out of the short-barreled weapon, leaving long holes in the townhome instead of round ones.
“That’s a devastating wound that that makes, so you can imagine that coming into contact with a little girl, 4 years old,” he said.
Salazar said the investigation is proceeding and that investigators are closing in on the identities of the shooters. And, he said, they found the car used to transport the shooters. It had been reported stolen several days earlier in Converse.
“Is it going to give me great pleasure to charge both of these two guys with capital murder when the time comes? absolutely it’s going to,” the sheriff said. “I can promise you that.”
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[Featured image: Bexar County Sheriff’s Office. Inset: Maryann/GoFundMe]
