George Floyd’s 4-year-old grandniece shot and injured in New Year’s Day shooting

By Sara Sidner, Omar Jimenez, Rosa Flores, Kacey Cherry and Sarah Moon, CNN

George Floyd’s 4-year-old grandniece, Arianna Delane, was shot and injured after several shots were fired into an apartment in Houston on New Year’s Day, Derrick Delane, the girl’s father, told CNN affiliate KTRK.

“She is recovering,” Delane told CNN correspondent Rosa Flores on Wednesday. Delane told Flores the details reported by KTRK were accurate, but that he did not have time to do an interview at that time.

Family told KTRK the 4-year-old victim was struck in the torso while she was asleep in her bed and she suffered a punctured lung and liver and three broken ribs. Delane showed KTRK the bullet holes on the walls and windows.

“My daughter jumped up and said, ‘Daddy, I’ve been hit,’ and I was shocked until I seen the blood and I realized my 4-year-old daughter was really hit,” Delane told KTRK. “She didn’t know what was going on. She was asleep.”

Arianna was taken to a hospital in a private vehicle where she underwent surgery, the Houston Police Department (HPD) said in a news release Tuesday. She is currently in stable condition in the intensive care unit.

“I’m really hurting at the moment,” Philonise Floyd, George Floyd’s brother, told CNN.

Houston Police Chief Troy Finner called the shooting “senseless” and launched an internal investigation into HPD’s response time to the shooting, according to a statement posted to HPD’s Twitter account.

Police arrived roughly four hours after the incident, which occurred around 3 a.m., Delane told KTRK.

“I am aware and have concerns regarding the delayed response time in this incident and have initiated an Internal Affairs investigation. I ask the city continue to pray for the child’s full recovery and assist in providing information that would lead to the arrest of the suspect or suspects responsible,” Finner said in the statement.

In a Wednesday statement posted by the police department’s Twitter account, Finner said Houston police first responded after gunfire was detected by “Shot Spotter technology” around 3 a.m.

Officers searched for a scene in the area where the gun shots were detected by the technology, Finner said, and happened to notice a “large hole in fencing leading to the apartment complex.” But as they walked through parts of the complex, they were not flagged down by citizens and eventually left, Finner said.

“Unbeknownst to them, the child had already been transported from an apartment in a private vehicle to the hospital within 3-4 minutes after the shooting occurred,” the chief added in his statement.

An internal investigation was also announced Wednesday by the Houston Emergency Center to determine if the proper call handling protocols and procedures were followed, the Houston Office of Emergency Management (OEM) said in a tweet. An initial inquiry indicated “that the Houston Police Department was not notified of this incident at the same time as medical personnel,” the tweet said. The investigation is ongoing.

“Collectively, we will determine whether changes in protocols and training will need to be made as to how calls are handled and coded for dispatch,” Finner, the police chief, said in his statement.

There were four adults and two children inside the apartment at the time of the shooting, according to the HPD. There is no suspect description and the motive in the shooting is unknown at this time. The incident is under investigation by the HPD.

CNN has reached out to the Floyd family’s attorney, Ben Crump, for comment.

Floyd died in May 2020 in Minneapolis after then-police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes. Chauvin was found guilty of murder last spring and was sentenced to 22 and a half years in prison in June.

His death sparked protests in the United States and around the world that called for changes in policing and law enforcement’s relationship with Black and brown communities.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved.