*An 18-year-old mother has been left heartbroken after a 23-year-old male shot her 10-month-daughter in the head after the teen rejected his advances.
Marcos Echartea is in custody and charged with three counts of attempted murder and several other felonies, Complex reports. The attack occurred early Sunday in Fresno, California, where Deziree Menagh was at a party with her 10-month-old daughter, Fayth Percy. Echartea, who she’d met once before, tried to grab her hand, but she pulled away, police said.
Later, he tried to pull Menagh onto his lap as he sat on the porch, and again, she rejected him. Menagh then decided to leave the party with a friend. They were in the car when Echartea quickly approached the vehicle and fired three handgun rounds into the driver’s side window — one of the bullets hit the baby while she was being held by her mother in the front passenger seat.
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I was shot 8 years ago, and I’m still recovering.
Even I can’t imagine the long road to recovery this little baby and her mother now face. Another family devastated because we let guns fall into the wrong hands. https://t.co/iMax1aEVMo
— Gabrielle Giffords (@GabbyGiffords) June 25, 2019
In a statement on the attack, Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer told Fresno Bee that the baby’s parents were “broken” by incident.
“They are hurting,” Dyer said, noting that baby Fayth is in critical but stable condition in a regional hospital. “We held hands at the hospital and prayed for the baby, and we’re asking that everyone in this community come together and pray for baby Fayth for a complete recovery.”
Authorities say Marcos, who was also wanted for a May shooting, has shown no remorse for the shooting.
“Very apparent that Marcos Echartea has no regard for human life, even a baby,” Dyer said. “We have every reason to believe that Marcos Echartea knew that that baby, Fayth, was in that vehicle when he fired three rounds into that vehicle.”
As noted by wgntv.com, Echartea stands charged with three counts of attempted murder, in addition to several other felonies: assault with a firearm, assault with a semiautomatic firearm, discharging a firearm at an occupied dwelling, discharging a firearm in a negligent manner, endangering and causing injury to a child, conspiracy to commit assault with a firearm, among others.
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