Small Texas Town Reeling After Deputies Fatally Shoot Two People

SAN ANTONIO, TX — Two families are in mourning the day before Christmas, both killed by sheriff's deputies: A suspect shot as she allegedly tried to break into homes and a child accidentally killed in the crossfire.

On Thursday, a six-year-old was killed after Bexar County Sheriff's Office deputies opened fire on a woman they had been chasing, officials confirmed in a subsequent press conference. A suspected car thief, the woman allegedly had been trying to break into a home when deputies shot her. In the crossfire was the boy, struck in the abdomen when a bullet fired by a deputy pierced the wall of his family's mobile home.

The deaths have left the town of Schertz — a town some 20 miles northeast of San Antonio — reeling, with family members of both the dead seeking answers from police.

The dead woman was later identified as Amanda Lee Jones, 30. The boy has been identified as Kameron Prescott.

"Right now, what I’m dealing with is, is a tragic accident," Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said at a news conference Friday, adding the shooting is still under investigation.

Sheriff's deputies involved in the shooting have since said they found a tube-like object near where Jones fell dead, a device that may have been mistaken for a firearm. Deputies also noted Jones had acted belligerent toward them.

Friends of Jones complain that law enforcement has since painted a negative picture of Jones, perhaps in an effort to discredit and demonize her character entirely as the shooting is investigated. While her troubled past included past stints in jails, Jones was much more than a petty criminal, friends say.

She loved R&B and rock music, was devoted to her pet dogs and was a loyal friend, those who knew the woman told the San Antonio Express-News. Friends say it's also unfair how police are now conflating her actions as leading to the child's death when it was law enforcement that was armed and fired the deadly shots.

“All this hype about her criminal history,” Priscilla Espinosa, a close friend, complained to the newspaper, referring to early media reports and statements from the sheriff’s office. “They’re talking badly about her, but they don’t even know her. She would never hurt a child or put harm in a child’s way. She loved kids so much.”

Jones' friends aren't the only ones mourning at a time that's supposed to be marked by familial love in the hearth of the home with family members and loved ones. One woman recalled how just the other day six-year-old Prescott was happily playing with her son and other children living in the Pecan Grove Manufactured Home Community where the deaths occurred.

A funeral for six-year-old Kameron is scheduled for 10 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 28, at United Methodist Church, 90 Winn Ave. in Universal City. A public visitation is scheduled from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday at Chapel Hill Funeral Home, 7735 Gibbs Sprawl Road.

Funeral services for Jones, meanwhile, have not been set. Family members now are raising money to cover burial costs on the crowdfunding website youcaring.com.

Along with sorrow at the double killing, anger is mounting over what some view as police overreach against a backdrop of heightened police shootings in the last few years. According to the Washington Post's Fatal Force database, a total of 952 people have been shot and killed by US police in 2017. Last year, at least 1,092 people were killed by police in the U.S. 2016 according to the Guardian newspaper's The Counted database. Many have taken to Twitter to condemn the boy's death just days before Christmas.

A crowdfunding campaign launched on Gofundme to pay for Prescott's funeral raised $13,736 in just two days, exceeding the $12,000 goal.

>>> Image via GoFundMe