One-month-old Texas infant left brain damaged and critical after mother's boyfriend shoots him in the chest
SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS: A Texas infant is fighting for his life after he was shot in the chest by his mother's boyfriend during a violent incident that also left his mother and his sister with gunshot wounds as well.
Lance Tello Jr., 19, is said to have shot one-month-old Armani Cazares before turning the gun on his mother, and his 14-year-old sister inside his family's home on Five Forks Drive at around 2 am on April 4, according to Fox San Antonio.
A GoFundMe page set up for the infant states that the bullet entered his chest before exiting at the back of his head and that it affected his lungs and "shattered his vertebrae." He was in surgery for 3.5 hours and doctors said he suffered some brain damage due to a lack of oxygen.
"It's a nightmare. My son was here and now he's not," Armani's 18-year-old mother Daisy Delacruz cried. "Now the doctors are telling me he's not going to make it. That there's no hope. That he's practically brain dead."
"I was angry at him," she continued. "And then my anger just turned into sadness because I loved him. And I thought he loved me and my son."
While a motive for the horrific crime is still unclear, Armani was reportedly not Tello Jr.'s child. The infant's father reportedly left Delacruz after learning she was pregnant, following which she had started dating the 19-year-old.
Delacruz revealed that Tello Jr. worked six days a week at the Maruchan Texas Inc. ramen noodle factory, and that, a day before the shooting, told her he was feeling stressed at work and asked her to pick him up early.
She said he seemed normal when they got back home and even asked if he should feed Armani. "(Suddenly) his face changes and he’s telling me he doesn’t want to hold the baby anymore," she recalled.
"He just flipped. He was normal and then he just turned into someone else. Completely silent. Completely silent with a Bible," she continued. "And I'm talking to him and telling him, I'm sorry you're feeling like this, but can you just talk to me?' He still doesn't talk to me.'"
He reportedly continued to stare at the mirror for around a minute or two, and then, to her horror, reached in between the mattresses. pulled out a gun, cocked it, and pointed it towards her.
"And he's looking at my baby, and I'm telling him, 'You're not going to shoot my baby.' But before I could push him away from me, the gun goes off. And then I'm deaf. And then I turn around and I see my son. My son is on the floor and he's turning blue."
Tello Jr. was arrested not long after fleeing the scene and has since been charged with one count of injury to a child and three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in connection to the incident. He is currently being held at the Bexar County Jail with bonds set at a combined $500,000.
The GoFundMe page for Armani had raised $9,027 of a $10,000 goal at the time of writing.