HOUSTON – Authorities are searching for the ex-boyfriend of a woman who was killed Friday during a shooting in west Houston that also injured the woman’s 4-year-old daughter.
The shooting was reported about 4:20 a.m. at an apartment near the intersection of Barker Cypress Road and South Park View Drive.
Houston police said officers arrived to find the woman dead and the woman’s 4-year-old daughter injured by shrapnel. Police originally said the child had been shot, but later corrected that statement.
Investigators said they believe the girl was sleeping with her mother when the gunman first kicked down the front door of the apartment and then the woman’s bedroom door before firing at least six shots.
Witnesses said they saw the shooter running away and recognized him as the woman’s ex-boyfriend.
“The person who ran out -- kind of tall, skinny -- ran out, jumped the fence and ran on the other side,” said one witness, who didn’t want to be identified.
“He used to live there with her and he was always beating on her,” the witness added.
Police said there was a history of domestic violence between the victim and her ex-boyfriend.
The child was conscious and breathing when she was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment and is expected to recover, police said.
Investigators said four other children were also in the apartment at the time of the shooting, but none of them were injured.