A 4-year-old girl identified as a relative of George Floyd was shot inside an apartment in Houston on New Year’s Day, ABC13 Houston reported.
As of Tuesday, Arianna Delane was in the hospital with three broken ribs and a punctured liver and lung, according to her family, the ABC affiliate noted.
The shooting happened before 3 a.m. local time on Saturday when gunfire struck the front bedroom of the apartment where Arianna was sleeping, her father, Derrick Delane, said, according to ABC13 Houston.
Delane, who believes the shooting was targeted, noted that it took several hours for authorities to respond to the incident at 7 a.m., according to the ABC affiliate.
Detectives from the Houston Police Department Major Assaults and Family Violence Division said in a statement on Tuesday that they did not have a motive regarding the shooting or a suspect description.
However, Houston Police Chief Troy Finner said in a statement on Tuesday that their investigation into the “senseless shooting” of the 4-year-old girl “continues to move forward.”
“I am aware of and have concerns regarding the delayed response time in this incident and have initiated an Internal Affairs investigation. I ask the city continue to pray for the child’s full recovery and assist in providing information that would lead to the arrest of the suspect or suspects responsible,” Finner said.
Floyd’s murder at the hands of a former Minneapolis police office in May 2020 ignited protests for racial justice and the treatment of Black people and other minorities by police.
Derek Chauvin, the officer who knelt on Floyd’s back and neck for nearly 10 minutes before his death, was convicted last year on murder and manslaughter charges.