Police in San Antonio, Texas, opened fire and killed a armed suspect on Thursday afternoon, but a stray bullet also killed 6-year-old Kameron Prescott in the process. The sheriff involved called it a "tragic accident."
SCUC mourns the passing of Wiederstein Elementary first grade student Kameron Prescott: https://t.co/mJzLOV2oT6 https://t.co/I2Tu7Irf6i— SchertzCiboloUC ISD (@SchertzCiboloUC ISD)1513970875.0
According to the Chicago Tribune, Bexar County authorities tracked down the suspect, Amanda Jones, 30, for car theft and other crimes. After being pursued for two hours, she attempted to break into a trailer when she was shot down by the deputies, oblivious to the young boy behind the door. Jones was unrelated to the residents inside the home inside Pecan Grove mobile home park.
Sheriff Javier Salazar claimed he didn't know anybody was home.
The stray bullet struck one of the walls of the trailer and pierced Prescott's torso, and he was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital.
Salazar issued a statement at a news conference.
In my opinion it's a tragic accident that led to the death of this young man. We are looking into all of it. Internal Affairs is still investigating it. But again preliminarily it appears that policies and procedures (on use of force) were complied with.
Heart goes out to Kameron Prescott's family after his tragic death from a deputy-involved shooting in Schertz. He… https://t.co/S4MJ9Igr5U— Ryan Wolf (@Ryan Wolf)1513962082.0
The pursuit began with the call of the stolen vehicle involving a known suspect with outstanding felony warrants. The Tribune reported:
Deputies had seen the woman earlier Thursday brandishing a handgun and they believed she was holding a firearm when they confronted her on the trailer's porch and shot her multiple times, the sheriff said. She was found to have a dark pipe, but investigators found no gun at the shooting scene, although they continued to search for one along the route where the pursuit occurred, he said.
Salazar said Jones tried to break into several homes in the park while fleeing from authorities before reaching the trailer belonging to the Prescott family. Kameron happened to be home from school that day because the students were released at noon for the Christmas weekend.
Kameron Prescott. Just 6 years old. The youngest person shot & killed by American police in 2017. His family i… https://t.co/oAjkFPoRDm— Shaun King (@Shaun King)1513998266.0
"The deputies are of course understandably shaken up from this whole incident," Salazar said. "Officer-involved shootings are traumatic enough. Add to this one the death of an innocent 6-year-old and it's that much more troubling."
Four of the deputies involved in Thursday's shooting have been put on administrative leave.
The boy's first-grade teacher, Shanda Ince, issued a statement released by the Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City Independent School District.
Kameron was the kindest-hearted little boy that I have ever had the pleasure of teaching.
Twitter was understandably outraged and wouldn't accept the incident merely as a "tragic accident."
@SCUCISD You mean "the MURDER." #KameronPrescott— Al Garcia (@Al Garcia)1514005088.0
You cannot claim there is no problem in the institution when a child, a six year old purely innocent CHILD just got… https://t.co/CKvpcn2fvm— Laura (@Laura)1513998579.0
@SCUCISD Murdered by police. This is extremely tragic.— RealUptalk2017 (@RealUptalk2017)1514067283.0
So now, two days before Christmas, Bexar deputies decided trading the life of 6-year-old #KameronPrescott was a fai… https://t.co/pj3ePedXpI— T. Greg Doucette (@T. Greg Doucette)1514044908.0
This is how your criminal justice system works. Every day. Killers roaming the streets, paid with your tax money, e… https://t.co/ffvf3LE8ki— T. Greg Doucette (@T. Greg Doucette)1514044986.0
@anyaparampil No way that cop should have fired into an occupied dwelling 🤔— GoodTwitty (@GoodTwitty)1514005120.0
@anyaparampil This is sickening Police chasing a "woman with a gun" she goes on a trailer porch & police shot her d… https://t.co/kcPnYsntU4— ❄Azurine❄ (@❄Azurine❄)1514004311.0
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H/T - ChicagoTribune, TheRoot, NBCnews, Twitter