OAKLAND (KRON) — Child abuse charges have been filed against two men, including the father of a 4-year-old girl who was shot in East Oakland, according to prosecutors on Friday.
Oakland police said the girl was with her father, 22-year-old Julius Miller and another man, 21-year-old Marcel Powell, in a Volvo XC90 on Tuesday when the car was fired upon at 81st Avenue and Rudsdale Street. The girl suffered a gunshot wound to the chest.
Officer Marcos Campos wrote in a probable cause statement that Miller had placed his daughter, Tayani Miller, in the car’s back seat without a child seat.
Prosecutors say Miller and Powell are accused of unlawfully placing the child in a situation likely to produce great bodily harm and endanger her health.
Police say Miller and several friends had bought paintball equipment from a sporting goods store in Tracy and they “fired paintballs at multiple unknown suspected drug addicts… throughout the city of Oakland.”
Officers found a paintball gun next to the Volvo which crashed after the shooting.
Officer Campos said, “The shooting of persons with paintballs is a possible motive to the shooting.”
Investigators say Miller told police that he guided the driver through the city while paintballs were being fired.
Tayani currently is at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland, where she is in stable condition and is expected to survive her injuries.
The person who shot and injured Tayani remains at large, police said.
Prosecutors say Miller has two prior convictions in Alameda County for first-degree residential burglary, one in 2012 and one in 2014. Powell has a prior conviction for first-degree residential robbery in San Joaquin County in 2012.