Family of 9-year-old Arlene Alvarez, shot and killed by a robbery victim, demanding justice
HOUSTON - The family of a 9-year-old Arlene Alvarez held a candlelight vigil to honor her Wednesday.
Just a day before, the 4th grader died at the hospital after she was shot by a robbery victim. The man says he was attempting to retaliate at the perpetrator Monday night but shot at the wrong car.
BACKGROUND: 9-year-old girl shot in unrelated vehicle during robbery dies
On Wednesday afternoon, the family held a news conference demanding justice after her suspected shooter was granted a $100,000 bond by a judge Tuesday night.
"She had told me she wanted to be on TV because she wanted to be viral at the time," said Wendy Alvarez, Arlene's mother. "But this is not the way I wanted my baby to be viral."
"They told me, ma'am, I’m so sorry, but she’s brain-dead," Wendy added. "And I said I just want to have her with me. And they just had her with the machine, and they said there’s nothing we can do, she’s already dead. She’s not going to make it."
Police say Arlene was in the backseat with her two brothers, when a man getting robbed at the Chase Bank off Woodridge Drive shot at her parent's truck, thinking they were involved.
"I told everyone to get down," said Armando Alvarez, Arlene's father. "Arlene’s the only that didn’t get down. She had her headphones in."
RELATED: Family members react after 9-year-old girl was fatally shot by robbery victim
"We were like ‘duck down, duck down Arlene!’ But I didn’t scream loud enough," he added. "I didn’t know she had her earphones on."
The suspected shooter, 41-year-old Tony D. Earls appeared in court Tuesday night where a judge set his bond set at $100,000.
Making the Case: When self-defense goes wrong
The city of Houston has lost another innocent child to senseless gun violence. A 9 year-old-girl was accidentally shot by a robbery victim in southeast Houston in a Chase Bank parking lot Monday night and Houston Police say the man had just been victimized and thought he was firing at the suspect who robbed him. Instead, he fired into a truck carrying a family. Crime continues to rise in Houston, and with Texas gun laws changing that now allow people to carry a weapon without obtaining a canceled handgun license, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner has warned residents that they should assume everyone is carrying a weapon. So what happens when you're trying to defend yourself and that goes terribly wrong? The News Edge spoke to legal analyst Charles Adams about what the law says about firing in self-defense but missing your target.
Arlene’s parents are stunned.
"I didn’t even know how to call 911 whenever that’s like the easiest thing that you could do," Wendy said. "To see my daughter, they took us in the ambulance. The moment that they told me they couldn’t do nothing. I didn’t want to let her go."
MORE: Suspected gunman says shooting was self-defense, offers prayers for 9-year-old victim's family
The family’s attorney now considering legal action against Chase bank, citing a violent history at that location. He also adds Arlene’s death may have been prevented, citing a violent history at that Chase location. In October, a woman was shot and killed there.