An “innocent bystander,” a woman, was shot in the mouth outside of a pizza shop in southwest Houston, Texas, and police are looking into the incident. Officers with the Houston Police Department say the assault happened around 2 a.m. on February 26.
According to the police, they were dispatched to Parma Pizza on the corner of Richmond Avenue and Fountain View to assist the Harris County Sheriff’s Officers who had been working a second shift in the area and were detaining a man. The owners of the eatery claimed to the media that the incident had nothing to do with their establishment and occurred in the parking lot.
According to the investigation, as a large crowd gathered to watch the officers detaining the man, gunfire erupted. A woman, sitting in the backseat of a car in the pizza shop’s parking lot, was reportedly shot by a stray bullet. A second person was reportedly hit by a stray bullet but is doing okay.
Lieutenant Ignacio Izaguirre of the Houston Police Department stated that officers on the scene called for backup after seeing muzzle flashes coming from multiple directions, including Richmond Avenue and Beverly Hills. Police apprehended a group of men, and in their possession they found about three firearms and one long rifle, as reported by Officer Izaguirre. The woman who was shot in the mouth was taken to the hospital and is expected to make a full recovery.
According to the Gun Violence Archive, which collects data on shootings across the country, 89 people have been injured in Houston so far this year. Additionally, 4,969 people have been injured by firearms in the United States so far in 2023, according to the data. According to the CDC, 87% of nonfatal firearm injuries in the US occur in men.