DEL VALLE, Texas — The Travis County Sheriff's Office (TCSO) is looking for a man they say shot a child in an apparent road rage incident in Del Valle earlier this week.
On Monday night, Maricela Gonzales and her family were on their way home from an H-E-B store on Elroy and Fagerquist roads in Del Valle when she noticed an SUV that was starting to tailgate them, attempting to pass but not being able to.
Gonzales said her husband turned to let the man pass him. Then, all of a sudden, they heard gunfire.
"He started shooting around our area. It sucks to say, but that happens a lot," Gonzales said. "When my daughter was in the backseat, on the driver's side, she started yelling. She had her hands up on her ears, and I turned around and looked at her and I saw blood coming from her forearm."
Gonzales' 5-year-old daughter, Catalina Zamora, was struck by a bullet.
"If the bullet didn't stop in her bone, it would have shot through the driver's side as well, hitting my husband. And doctors said if the bullet didn't stop on my daughter, then we wouldn't have my husband today," Gonzales said. "So to make our daughter feel better, we told her she saved her dad's life."
Zamora is now in the hospital, recovering and undergoing therapy. She has to relearn how to use her fingers after the bullet hit a bone.
"Why shoot a gun if you see a baby while she was in her booster? You could see that she was a little girl. She wasn't an adult, she wasn't a teenager. You saw her in that window. Why would you shoot a gun?" Gonzales asked.
The Travis County Sheriff's Office is looking for the suspect vehicle and its driver. Officials described the suspect as a man between the ages of 17-20 who was driving a 2009-2020 Black Chevrolet Tahoe.
Gonzales is making a plea for the community's help in identifying the suspect, hoping to prevent something like this from happening to other families like hers.
"I don't think any family should go through that, and especially for a five-year-old," Gonzales said.
Anyone with any information regarding this incident is asked to call the TCSO tip line at 512-854-1444 or call Crime Stoppers at 512-472-8477.