Photo Courtesy of Daisha Smalls/Ben Crump
Daisha Smalls, 19, is speaking out after Houston police shot her 1-year old son, Legend, in the head earlier this month while shooting and killing a robbery suspect, according to a KRPC-2 report.
On March 3, the young mother was at a fuel station on Southwest Freeway and Beechnut Street in Houston. As Smalls finished putting gas in her vehicle, the assailant converged upon the woman attempting to carjack her. Houston police officers
had been pursuing the man suspected of committing a robbery. As the alleged robber tried to eject Smalls from the automobile, the woman refused and began screaming that her baby, Legend, was inside.“I was just scared for my son’s life,” Smalls told KRPC during a press conference on Tuesday.
As Houston police officers moved in on the man, they claimed they saw the suspect with a gun. A veteran officer fatally shot the man and wounded Baby Legend. The cop had been on the force for 15 years at the time of the shooting.
Smalls said, “My baby didn’t deserve to be shot, especially by the police.”
Smalls is now being represented by Ben Crump, who is known for representing families of unarmed, Black victims of police violence. Crump says what happened to Smalls was a violation of protocol – police fired upon an individual without first identifying the target.
As a result of the officer’s negligence, Legend, who was shot on his head’s right side, faced life-threatening injuries.
“They [doctors] had to remove part of his skull to deal with the swelling in his brain,” Crump said as Smalls wept by his side.
HPD Chief Art Acevedo released a statement on Twitter about the shooting on Tuesday.
HPD claims officers did not know a baby was in the back of the car when they began shooting at the suspect, who still has not been identified.