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A 47-year-old man has been arrested on a capital murder charge in connection with a suspected road-rage shooting that killed a 5-year-old girl in Texas and injured two of her siblings over the weekend.
Jeremy Porter was taken into custody Sunday, Sept. 20, in connection with the fatal shooting of Zah’Layah Walter, according to Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez.
Zah’Layah’s mother, Monica Hicks, told KHOU that she had been driving home from her mother’s house with her five children when someone began firing at her vehicle near the corner of Grant Road and Jones Road.
According to the sheriff’s office, the shooting occurred around 11:30 p.m.
Hicks said her vehicle was fired upon at least five times before she realized what had happened.
“All my kids in the back seat were screaming, and they continued to shoot in my car,” she said.
Hicks said she did not realize Zah’Layah had been sH๏τ until she pulled into her apartment complex. Zah’Layah was flown to a hospital, where she was pronounced ᴅᴇᴀᴅ.
“She was the light of my life,” her mother told KHOU. “That was my baby.”
Two other children in the vehicle sustained injuries from shattered glᴀss, Hicks said, and the sheriff’s office confirmed the information to PEOPLE on Monday. The children sustained non-life-threatening injuries, according to the sheriff’s office. Hicks told KHOU she did not see who was driving the vehicle from which the sH๏τs were fired.
In a statement Monday, Sept. 21, Gonzalez said detectives used automated license plate readers to track down Porter, who remains in custody at the Harris County Jail.
A GoFundMe has been organized to help cover Zah’Layah’s funeral and burial expenses.