HOUSTON (fox 26) - A Barbara Jordan High School student is recovering from her injuries after she was shot and robbed at around 7 a.m. Wednesday while walking to school but she never made it to campus. 17-year-old high school senior Ariana Emanuel was a couple of blocks from school when witnesses say a 4-door black car pulled up, a man jumped out and tried snatching Emanuel's handbag but she struggled with him. The man then shoved the student to the ground and shot her, according to the Houston Police Department.
"It's too sad, too sad -- a kid can't go to school and get an education," says one resident. After shooting the 17-year-old in the shoulder, the man took her purse and cell phone.
"She was screaming hysterically," explains one woman who ran from her home to help.
"How much money do you think a child has?," asks another woman.
"She's a teenager," adds a Barbara Jordan student. "Why would you rob a teenager?"
"It's heartbreaking," says Houston Independent School District Board president Rhonda Skillern Jones, who visited Emanuel in the hospital. "My primary concern is my students welfare so it was of necessity for me to be there."
Friends of Emanuel say the phone the gunman stole was old with a severely shattered screen and there was no money in her purse.
"And even if there was, nothing is ever worth shooting someone over and a child simply trying to get to school? It's just awful," adds Skillern Jones.
Emanuel is in stable condition. The robber has not been found. Anyone with information that could lead to the shooter's arrest in encouraged to contact Crime Stoppers of Houston anonymously by phone at 713-222-8477 (TIPS).
HISD released the following statement:
A Barbara Jordan High School student was shot during a reported robbery off campus before school started at the intersection of Sayers and Kelley streets. The injured student was transported to the hospital and is expected to recover. All students on campus are safe. Police are investigating, and extra officers have been assigned to patrol the campus and surrounding area as a precautionary measure.