A 6-year-old girl was shot and killed in Texas during an argument over spilled water from a clogged toilet.
Laurionne Walker was shot several times by Raymeon Means at an apartment complex in Pasadena on Friday. The little girl was being looked after by Means’ sister at the time.
“The toilet was stopped up and the water spilled out, so it was overflowing and that was what set him off I guess,” Pasadena police spokeswoman Jessica Ramirez said, as per the New York Post.
The girl had been left in the care of a relative so she could attend the vigil of a woman and her three children, who all died in a car crash in Spring the previous weekend, KTRK reported. Laurionne’s mother is the aunt of the three children who died in the crash.
A resident of the apartment block where it happened said Means spoke to him just before it happened.
“He knocked on the door and he was like, ‘Oh, can you check if you have water coming down because the little girl clogged the toilet,’” neighbor Maurico Alvarez said, as per the New York Post.
“He went running upstairs and we heard like four, five shots and he started running, and we started hearing screams,” Alvarez told KPRC.
He fled the apartment after the shooting but was later arrested and charged with capital murder.
Police said officers who arrived at the scene performed CPR until she was rushed to hospital where she later died.
An online fundraiser set up to help with funeral costs and therapy for her mom and two sisters has raised over $16,000 as of Tuesday.
“I’m at a loss for words right now, I’m still choked up right now,” Laurionne’s grandmother, Earline House, told KPRC. “My granddaughter was still a baby. She got shot twice in the chest this morning.”
If convicted, Means could face the death penalty, but it’s unclear if prosecutors intend to seek that, according to media reports.
This is a horrific case and my heart goes out to the family of this little girl.
I hope justice is served and this man is never allowed near another child again. Please share.
