Man shoots 10-month old girl in head after her mother rejects him, police say

A little girl barely 10 months old, is recovering in hospital after allegedly being shot in the head by a man who had been rebuffed in his advances towards the baby’s mother.

Jerry Dyer, head of the police department in Fresno, California, said 18-year-old Deziree Menagh, brought her daughter, Fayth Percy, to a party where Marcos Echartea approached her and put his hand on her.

Police said Mr Echartea grabbed her hand, and tried to pull Ms Menagh on top of him, according to NBC News.

Officers said Ms Menagh told them she barely knew Mr Echartea, 23, having met him just a week earlier. Upset by what had happened, Ms Menagh gathered her daughter and prepared to leave the party with a friend in her car.

Shortly afterwards, police said, Mr Echartea walked towards the car and fired three rounds into the window on the driver’s side of vehicle, one of them hitting the baby in the head.

“We have every reason to believe that Marcos Echartea knew baby Fayth was in that vehicle when he fired three rounds into the vehicle,” Mr Dyer said over the weekend.

“It should shock the conscience of every person in Fresno to know that we have a 10-month-old baby lying in the hospital fighting for her life.”

He added: “When our detectives brought him downtown, he had no remorse. He had just shot a 10-month-old baby and didn’t even seem to care or it didn’t phase him.”

Police said they intend to charge Mr Echartea with three counts of attempted murder over the incident, in the early hours of Sunday morning. Mr Dyer said they believed Mr Echartea was also responsible for a second shooting that occurred on May 27.

In that incident, they claim he fired several shots into an occupied home. While nobody was injured, one bullet struck just inches from a one-year-old child.

It was not immediately clear whether Mr Echartea had yet entered a plea or had a lawyer.