HOUSTON – A 7-year-old girl is on the road to recovery after being shot during a fight at the Cullen Park apartment complex near Cullen and Wenda overnight.
Houston police responded around midnight after gunfire broke out during an argument involving several people. Investigators are working to uncover who’s responsible and why the young girl was caught in the middle.
Paramedics rushed the young girl to the hospital, where police said she is now recovering.
Tiara Mathis, who lives nearby, said she heard gunshots recently.
“I’m glad she’s okay. I think there’s a lot of senseless shooting going on,” Mathis said. “I heard a lot of gunshots the night before last. They just kept going off. I could tell it was from afar.”
Travis McGee, president of the Sunnyside Garden Bayou Estates Civic Association, said crime has been a persistent issue in the area.
“I’ve lived here over 52 years. I was here when it was just a cow pasture,” McGee said. “There have been several killings back there. More needs to be done. Proper inspections need to be done. There are a lot of people causing trouble in those apartments who shouldn’t even be there. For kids to get caught in the crossfire, that’s very disturbing.”
McGee called for curfews and better security measures, noting that violence in the apartments often spills over into the surrounding neighborhood.
“There’s no such thing as a bad neighborhood, just good and bad people coming in and out,” he said.
He added that the civic association has invited apartment management to meetings in the past, but frequent changes in management have made it difficult to address the issues effectively.