Police chief working to find suspect who shot 4-year-old boy

HOUSTON (FOX 26) - It isn't everyday that the Houston Police Department Chief personally visits a crime scene but Chief Art Acevedo says he is determined to find the person who shot a four-year-old boy in the Sunnyside neighborhood.  

Sir Romeo Milam was shot in the Kings Row Apartments complex on May 15. He remains in the hospital and has had so many surgeries that his grandmother says she has now lost count. As the young boy struggles to survive, Houston's police chief is still trying to track down the ones responsible.

Young children who are supposed to be enjoying the summer are instead waving signs against violence, joined by Chief Acevedo. Some of them fear for their lives after four-year-old Sir Romeo was shot and critically injured.  

"I'm here to stand up for a little boy whose childhood has been damaged, stolen by cowards that have no respect,” says Chief Acevedo.  

”When you come over here, it's like a ghost town now," explains Sir Romeo's 14-year-old cousin Princess Vercher. "No kids want to come outside. No kids want to play because they're thinking, 'What if that happens to me?'”

”We were getting ready to go to sleep," describes Sir Romeo's 11-year-old sister Diamond. "I was on the couch and that's when they started shooting and I got down and then I saw Romeo crying.”

Sir Romeo had dropped to the floor also when his grandmother yelled for everyone to "get down," but a bullet came through the baseboard and struck the 4-year-old boy in the abdomen. He's had more than a dozen surgeries and is on dialysis after suffering kidney failure.

”He's off the breathing machine," explains Sir Romeo's grandmother Lori Anne Milam. "His oxygen level and his blood pressure drops, which can cause him brain damage.”

”It hurts me to the core because who would want to do this to a child?” asks Vercher.

”How do you sleep at night knowing this little boy might not live?," adds Lori Anne. "We don't know what his life is going to be even when he pulls through this.”

Residents say there were dozens of shots fired that day as two groups opened fire on one another but they only managed to take down the young boy in the crossfire.

“Anyone who has information, please come forward," says Chief Acevedo. "You don't need to be in fear. We'll work with the DA's office to get you somewhere safe.” There is a reward of up to $5,000 if you have information that leads to an arrest in the case.

Sir Romeo is expected to be in the hospital another six months to a year. His grandmother says even as he struggles to recover, he is repeatedly telling her and his mother, “I’m scared," fearing someone will come into the hospital and shoot him again.