Drive-by shooting injures sleeping child, 10, in Alief

Alief – A little boy is recovering after bullets flew through his apartment wall, hitting him as he slept.

Houston police said the 10-year-old Andrei Azate was sleeping on the living room floor of his family's apartment at the Sunset Crossing Apartments on Beechnut at Wilcrest in Alief, when gun shots rang out just after midnight Tuesday.

"The sound -- pop, pop, pop, pop. It was short but loud and I said that's not firecrackers," said neighbor Gwen Gonzalez.

It was gunfire just feet from Gonzalez's apartment. Several bullets went through the front window of apartment 821. One of those slugs traveled through the apartment's wall, and struck the boy who was asleep in a neighboring unit.  He was shot in the back, right shoulder. His grandmother was near him watching TV.

"She heard the bullet shots and so she threw herself on the floor. My nephew started crying. She thought she hurt him when she fell, but then no she noticed he had the bullet," said the victim's aunt Jazmin Valdez.

The boy was transported to the hospital in stable condition. He has since returned home to recover.

The intended target, police say, was not the little boy, but someone living here. Investigators say the shooter walked up to the area and fired more than four shots.

"It's just sad. I don't understand how you can shoot into someone's house and not care about anyone else, innocent bystanders around here," neighbor Ronald Sims said.

The shooter took off and now a little boy and his family are trying to recover.

"He takes care of his brothers. He's just a very good kid. Very sweet, big 'ole heart," said Valdez.

The child is still at Texas Children's Hospital in stable condition.

Houston Police arrested a man at the scene. Police say Jeremy Lee, 24 was on foot, loitering near the apartments when the shooting happened. He allegedly ran when investigating officers tried to question him. After he was arrested, Lee told police he is homeless. 

Police are not calling him a suspect. He's being held on charges of unlawfully carrying a gun, evading arrest and marijuana possession.