A 6-year-old Texas boy was killed just days before Christmas when sheriff’s deputies opened fire on a woman they had been chasing — and one of the bullets pierced the wall of a mobile home and struck the child in the abdomen.
The woman, a suspected car thief who had been trying to break into the home, was also killed, the local NBC affiliate reported Friday.
Now Bexar County sheriff’s detectives are trying to piece together the tragic chain of events that led to the death of Kameron Prescott — and locate the gun the dead woman allegedly pointed at the deputies at several points in the pursuit.
“Something in the way that suspect presented to the deputies placed these deputies in direct fear for their lives,” Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said after the deadly encounter Thursday in Schertz, a small town some 20 miles northeast of San Antonio.
“At the time, we don’t believe she was armed. She was presenting to be armed at various times throughout this prolonged pursuit.”
The slain boy and the suspect did not appear to be related, said Salazar, who did not identify her. He said the woman got “cornered” at the home in the Pecan Grove mobile home park.
Four deputies fired at the woman, who had several outstanding warrants, said Salazar. He did not identify the officers.
The deadly drama began around 11 a.m., Salazar said, when a deputy responding to reports of a stolen car found the suspect hiding in a closet and she allegedly told them, “I have a weapon, I’m gonna shoot you.”
Somehow, the woman was able to flee the residence into some nearby woods where the deputy lost her and called for backup, Salazar said. She was later spotted fording a river and the deputies chased after her in “water that was up to their chin.”
Salazar said the deputies believed she was armed because she appeared to point a weapon at them during the foot chase.
Two adults were in the mobile home with little Kameron when the fatal shots were fired, Salazar said.