A 33-year-old man has been indicted in regards to the fatal shooting of a 9-year-old girl on Valentine’s Day in 2022, Texas officials said.
Tony Earls was at a Chase Bank in Houston the night of Feb. 14 when he was robbed at gunpoint, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said.
Earls pulled out a gun and fired as the robber was running out of the bank. At the same time, 9-year-old Arlene Alvarez was with her family driving to get pizza, officials said.
“Even though it’s been two years, it still feels like it was yesterday,” Gwen Alvarez, the child’s mother, said at an April 24 news conference.
Gunshots struck the pickup and the child, killing her, officials said.
Earls was arrested and charged with aggravated assault, but a grand jury decided not to indict him, Ogg said in an April 24 news release. Earls was eventually released.
Two years later, a special prosecutor was assigned to reexamine the case, the district attorney’s office said.
“This case is not a typical case. This is not a case where the perpetrator set out to kill someone that night,” Ogg said at the news conference.
However, new technology brought new evidence to the case, according to Ogg.
“The expert’s opinion is that Mr. Earls saw the robber run past the vehicle with Arlene Alvarez inside — the vehicle did not do anything to give Mr. Earls a justification to shoot into the passing vehicle,” Special Prosecutor Warren Diepraam said. “Mr. Earls had a clear line of sight, and obviously Mr. Alvarez did not stop and say to the robber, ‘Get in’ or anything like that.”
Following the investigation, which included FBI firearms experts, a grand jury decided to indict Earls on murder charges, the district attorney’s office said.
“Some of us probably never thought this day would come, but all of us had faith that it would come,” Crime Stoppers Director of Victim Services Andy Kahan said at the news conference with the Alvarez family.
If convicted, Earls faces life in prison. He has yet to be arrested since the indictment, according to Houston Public Media.
“It brings us a little comfort that we have been on the first step of receiving justice for my daughter,” Gwen Alvarez said.
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