State of Texas v. Tony Earls

On February 14, 2022, 9-year-old Arlene Alvarez was fatally struck by a bullet while seated in the rear of her family’s pickup truck in Houston, TX. The shooter, Tony Earls Jr., fired multiple rounds towards a moving truck he mistakenly believed contained a suspect who had just robbed him at an ATM.

Investigator Celestina “Cele” Rossi analyzed ballistic and trajectory evidence and multiple scene videos to determine the shooter’s position and actions at the time of discharge. Her reconstruction demonstrated that Earls’ firing position was dangerously close and at a lateral angle to the moving truck, and that his rounds entered the truck while Arlene sat in the back seat—thereby linking his reckless discharge directly to her death.

This case underscores the critical importance of shooting incident reconstruction in establishing causation and demonstrating how a shooter’s spatial position relative to a target vehicle can result in tragic, unintended consequences.