Insets: Jeremy Porter and Zah’Layah Walter (Harris County Sheriff’s Office). Background: The intersection of Grant and Jones roads in Houston, Tex., where Porter allegedly shot Zah’Layah to death (Google Maps).
A Texas man allegedly opened fire on a vehicle he mistakenly thought had shot into his car but was actually just a mother driving her five kids home. One of the shots hit a 5-year-old girl inside, killing her.
Jeremy Porter, 47, stands accused of capital murder in the road rage shooting death of young Zah’Layah Walter in Houston, according to Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez.
As Monica Hicks drove her five children Saturday in the area of Grant Road near Jones Road, she suddenly heard a volley of shots. Her back left window shattered. She saw a white Ford pickup truck speeding away.
Love true crime? Sign up for our newsletter, The Law&Crime Docket, to get the latest real-life crime stories delivered right to your inbox.
One of the bullets struck Zah’Layah in the head. Hicks applied pressure to Zah’Layah’s wound until paramedics arrived. Zah’Layah was then flown via helicopter to a hospital. Doctors pronounced her dead. There were four bullet holes in the car. No one else was struck.
Hicks recalled her daughter’s last moments during a vigil on Monday night.
“My baby was like, ‘Mommy, can I have a Hot Pocket when I get home?'” Hicks said, according to local CBS affiliate KHOU. “And the last thing I said was, ‘Yes.'”
Cops tracked down Porter using Flock cameras and conducted a traffic stop before taking him into custody. In an interview after receiving his Miranda rights, Porter allegedly admitted to firing five shots into the vehicle. He allegedly said he thought he was shooting into a vehicle that had several occupants who shot at him and was being driven erratically.
It turned out Hicks and her children were driving a similar-looking vehicle.
Hicks said she wishes the shots had hit her instead of her daughter.
“I’m going to go insane. I lost my baby,” Hicks said. “Nobody else — that was my baby. I carried her. And it hurts so bad that I can’t do anything about it. My baby’s never coming back.”
Porter is in the Harris County Jail without bond. His next court date was not immediately listed.
The post Story: 5-year-old excited to go home and eat a Hot Pocket is killed when a driver unloads a flurry of shots into the wrong vehicle: Cops first appeared on Law & Crime.
