Baby shot in Houston road rage incident after deaf dad said he cut driver off, cops say

An 18-month-old baby was shot during a suspected road rage encounter in Houston on Wednesday afternoon, according to police.

The man driving the vehicle that was hit by the gunfire was a father who said he was deaf and had inadvertently cut off another driver in southwest Houston around 1 p.m., police said.

“He said he accidentally cut off a vehicle and tried to apologize when he saw the suspect brandish a weapon,” Houston Police Department Assistant Chief James Jones said during a news conference. “The suspect fired two shots at that vehicle.”

At least one of the shots hit the baby, Jones said. After the shooting, witnesses said the child’s father drove to a gas station at Southwest Freeway and Gessner Road for help, the Houston Chronicle reports.

“We believe it was road rage,” Jones said. “We have no indication that they knew each other.”

Police said the child was hospitalized in stable condition with an injury to the upper left shoulder near the neck and is expected to live, KPRC reports.

Jones described the car the suspect was driving as a “newer model blue vehicle, possibly a Camry or a Honda Accord — one of the two.” Police said they only have a preliminary description of the suspected shooter. The cars involved didn’t come into contact with one another, Jones said.

Police said they aren’t sure exactly where the shooting occurred because they haven’t had time to talk thoroughly with the father. The father, who had been driving with two children when the incident happened, went to the hospital with the injured baby, Jones said.

“It just makes no sense at all,” Jones said. “It’s just a tragedy.”

Witnesses described a bloody scene at the gas station, according to the Chronicle.

“The guy comes in with his kid,” said store manager Pursuram Sharma, the newspaper reports. “The kid was bleeding from behind. He handed over the phone to me so I could call 911.”

Sharma said a nurse helped care for the child, according to the Chronicle. Another witness said the bullet missed the child’s spine by roughly an inch.

“For being shot, I would think the baby would be hysterical,” said Steven Gamez, who works in the store, the Chronicle reports. “But the baby was calm.”

This story was originally published May 1, 2019 at 5:30 PM with the headline "Baby shot in Houston road rage incident after deaf dad said he cut driver off, cops say."