HOUSTON – The mother of 6-year-old Jairo Ivan Victoriano is overcome with grief after he was shot and killed Thursday in the place she felt he was safest -- their home.
Deputies said Jairo was getting ready for bed when he walked into a room and was hit by a stray bullet that pierced through the wall.
Investigators said someone from the neighboring apartment fired the gun. When deputies arrived to the 6300 block of Sierra Blanca, they detained two minors and three men.
"This was my son, he was my baby," Jairo's mother said through a translator. "They have taken him from me. He was the most beautiful. I don't know what I'm going to do without him. My heart is broken. I don't want to live without him."
Jairo was a kindergarten student at Hearne Elementary School. His teacher said he was smart and friendly.
"He was one of her best students," Craig Eichorn of the Alief Independent School District said. "In fact he was reading way above his grade level and always asked to help her pass out assignments."
While family members are trying to cope with the tragedy, deputies are working to figure out what exactly happened, who pulled the trigger and who the gun is registered to.
This is the third child in Harris County who has been shot and killed due to improper use of firearms.