A teenager who was arrested following the homicide of 6-year-old Alanna Gallagher, has also been accused of shooting a police officer who attempted to arrest him.
The recent killing of Alanna Gallagher shocked the Texas community of Saginaw after her body was found wrapped in a tarpaulin on a street corner.
Associated Press reported Tyler Holder, 17, a neighbor of the dead girl, was charged with capital murder over Gallagher’s death. Now he stands accused of shooting a police officer who was trying to arrest him.
According to reports he shot at Arlington police Detective Charles Lodatto. An arrest warrant said the detective, an FBI agent and a Saginaw police detective went to Holder’s house, announced themselves as police officers, and came face-to-face with the suspect.
AP reported on how FBI Special Agent Andy Farrell knocked on the front door. The report said the suspect produced a gun and shot Lodatto in the groin. The warrant said a detective then shot Holder in the head. “Holder remains hospitalized, but officials have refused to release h is medical condition,” stated AP.
The affidavit revealed police believe Holder sexually assaulted the six-year-old girl and suffocated her. Plastic bags were found around her neck and Holder’s DNA matched evidence found on the girl’s body, according to the capital murder arrest affidavit.
The killing of Alanna Gallagher .was one of the most shocking crimes seen in northern Texas in recent years.
However, when a suspect is involved in a shoot-out with police in this manner, it can make matters difficult when so little information is forthcoming.
In Texas 17-year-olds have been treated for years in the same way by the criminal justice system as adults, with the caveat that they cannot receive the death penalty.
In 2005 the Supreme Court prohibited the use of the death penalty for 17-year-olds saying their brains were less well developed and they were not as culpable as adults. That left life without parole as the most serious sentence available for 17-year-olds.
Now legislators in Texas are working to comply with a United State Supreme Court ruling that 17-year-olds should be eligible for parole after 40 years.
