SPRING, Texas (AP) — A newborn boy was abducted from his dying mother after she was repeatedly shot outside a suburban Houston pediatric center on Tuesday, according to investigators searching for the suspected shooter who sped off with the infant in a blood-stained Lexus.
Kayla Marie Golden, 28, was leaving an afternoon checkup with her 3-day-old son, Keegan, when she had a verbal altercation with a woman in a Lexus parked next to her pickup truck, Montgomery County sheriff’s Lt. Dan Norris said.
Witnesses said the woman repeatedly shot Golden, took the infant and sped away, hitting the dying mother as she screamed “my baby” and tried to reach into the Lexus, Norris said. Witnesses also reported hearing as many as seven gunshots and said a man also was in the Lexus, which is blood-stained on the driver’s side, Norris said.
Officers searched a nearby apartment complex Tuesday night for the boy but did not find him, Deputy U.S. Marshal Alfredo Perez told The Associated Press in a brief interview. It wasn’t immediately clear what led authorities to the complex, where officers were seen wielding guns and riot shields.
The infant was last seen wearing a green-and-white one-piece outfit displaying the word “handsome.”
The shooting happened just after 2 p.m. outside the Northwoods Pediatric Center in Spring, which is about 20 miles north of Houston. A statewide emergency alert has been issued for the baby.
Witnesses described the shooting suspect as a thin, gold-haired black woman, apparently in her late 20s or early 30s, Norris said. They also said the Lexus was sky blue or light green.
Joshua Jesson said he was in the clinic with his girlfriend when he heard gunshots. He said he saw the Lexus next to the pickup truck, then later looked back and saw the car was gone and a woman lying in the spot where the Lexus had been parked.
“I thought she just passed out. Then somebody ran in here and said, `Somebody got shot,'” he said.
Police quickly surrounded the clinic and much of the parking lot with crime-scene tape, and yellow markers were placed next to a purse and pair of brown sandals near a red pickup truck. Spent ammunition also was nearby.
The clinic is in an area thick with strip malls.
