Father says one of three assailants shot and killed his 1-year-old son in SW Houston

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Photo: GENNA MARTIN/SEATTLEPI.COM

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Police responded to two shooting calls Wednesday afternoon.

Photo: GENNA MARTIN/SEATTLEPI.COM

An infant was shot and killed Wednesday afternoon as his father was taking him for a walk outside his southwest Houston apartment.

The fatal shooting happened about 1:30 pm along the 5400 block of Braesvalley. Houston police said the father was taking his son, about 1 year old, for a walk when three men approached them.

One of them was armed with a pistol. “He began shooting at the father. The father turns and runs,” said Sgt. Mark Holbrook with the Houston police homicide division.

The boy was struck by the gunfire. HPD detectives said the father ran to a nearby Valero gas station along Chimney Rock and Braeswood. He spotted a Harris County constable pumping gas, police said.

An ambulance was called, but the child died.

HPD investigators said the father told them he didn’t know the assailants. It wasn’t immediately clear whether they had targeted the man, police said.

“I don’t know at this time. Maybe, maybe not,” Holbrook said. Police did not have a detailed description of the gunman or the two men he was with at the time. They remain at large.

Police are continuing to canvass the neighborhood around the location where the child was shot for any clues into the fatal shooting.

While police investigated the gunfire, the nearby Pilgrim Lutheran School went on lockdown for part of the afternoon, according to an email sent to parents. The lockdown was lifted just after 3 p.m.

Less than a month earlier, another 1-year-old was shot in southwest Houston, near Beechnut and Renwick. The boy was hospitalized May 22 after a shot pierced his mother’s car, hitting the infant’s leg.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS.