Police in Texas have arrested one man and are searching for a second in the shooting death of 22-month-old Zillyana Thornton.
Waco Police officers arrested Elias Espinosa on Friday on a murder charge.
On May 12th, Zillyana was transported to Baylor Scott & White Hospital in Waco on Wednesday afternoon, and was pronounced dead at 3:37 p.m.
Police said Thornton was shot in the stomach. They believe it was a handgun, and they have the weapon.
Investigators are now looking for the little girl’s father, Jaylon Thornton. They plan to charge him with Injury to a Child by Omission.
Police say video evidence shows he delayed medical attention to Zillyana, after she was shot, by six minutes. It reportedly shows that as Thornton prepared to take his daughter to the hospital, he left the car to grab a backpack of marijuana and told Espinosa to leave with it.
Thornton is then accused of waiting for Zillyana’s mother to arrive and then going back into the house to retrieve his house keys.
According to an autopsy, Zillyana’s heart continued beating for 33 minutes after she was shot and her wounds were not immediately fatal. If she had gotten medical aid sooner, doctors say she would have had a better chance for survival.
Detectives say Espinosa’s gun is the one that killed Zillyana and that it was on a couch when the shooting happened. They say he did not have the weapon stored in a holster when he left the area.
The gun has been registered stolen out of Corpus Christi and additional charges are pending.
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