Allana Gray was out running errands on May 21 when she got the phone call every parent dreads. Her 2-year-old daughter, Egypt, had been seriously injured.
Gray rushed home to find a chaotic scene. People surrounded the home, drawn by the commotion. At one point, one of Gray’s family members confronted the crowd with a gun, which led someone to call the cops. They arrived at the Houston apartment complex around 6 p.m., where they were made aware of the hit-and-run accident involving Egypt.
Gray’s 4-year-old son is the only known witness. The mother says the girl’s father had been watching her play with her brother on the stairs outside their apartment. The dad went inside to grab his cellphone, and when he came back outside, he was met by his boy.
“My son was coming up, he was running up the stairs, and (the father) said ‘Where is your sister?’ and from the top of the stairs you can see right at the parking lot, and he says when he looked up he saw her,” Gray told Houston’s ABC affiliate.
“When I seen my baby, I almost passed out,” she continued.
Gray said she didn’t even think about waiting for an ambulance to transport Egypt to the hospital. She sped to the hospital with Egypt’s father in the back seat, giving his daughter CPR.
But it wasn’t enough. Egypt was pronounced dead at the hospital. But Gray’s nightmare wasn’t over. She was handcuffed and detained by police, who were suspicious of the mother’s involvement after spotting blood on her vehicle.
“They detained me, they put me in handcuffs, they put me in the back of a police car and I didn’t even get to say goodbye to my baby, I didn’t even get to kiss her,” said Gray, who was questioned in the back seat of a police car until 5 a.m. the next morning.
She remembers her daughter as “smart, she was funny, she had a big attitude, she had a big personality, she was so loving and caring, she was a protector.”
Gray said she’s frustrated that police don’t have any leads yet. They have yet to interview her son, she said.
She insists she never left her two children unsupervised or near any danger. Last week’s tragedy played out in a matter of seconds, she said.
“If you hit her, if you seen anything, or seen who hit her, please, just say something,” Gray pleaded.
Justin Jones, a neighbor of the Grays, said cars routinely speed through their apartment complex.
“It breaks my heart because I have an almost two-year-old,” Jones said to ABC13
Houston police have not updated the investigation since last week. The family has launched an online fundraiser to help with the funeral arrangements.
