Woman, unborn child shot to death

HITCHCOCK — A woman five months pregnant died after she was shot three times Saturday night, and her unborn child also died, police said.
The woman’s boyfriend was charged in the killing, police said.

Erika Johnetta Gee, 33, was shot in her apartment in the 5800 block of Delany soon after a co-worker dropped her off. The shooting happened about 10:40 p.m. The suspect in the shooting drove himself to the police station, saying he wanted to talk about the incident, Police Chief Clay Kennelly said.

Bernard Stinson Cunningham, 33, was charged with one count of homicide and was being held in the Galveston County Jail on $500,000 bond.

The Galveston County district attorney is exploring the possibility Cunningham also will be charged in the death of the unborn child, Kennelly said.

Under a 2003 Texas law, an unborn child is considered an “individual” at every stage of gestation from fertilization until birth.

The chief said Gee’s 10-year-old daughter was in the apartment at the time and witnessed the shooting. She is the person who called 911.

Gee’s 13-year-old son was staying with friends at another apartment in the complex.

The children were staying with their father, Gee’s sister, Lameko Hennigan, said.

Gee had just returned home from her job at Gulf Greyhound Park when she was killed. She was shot at least three times, Kennelly said.

An ambulance took her to Mainland Medical Center in Texas City, where efforts to save her and the unborn child were unsuccessful, Kennelly said.

Emergency room doctors performed an emergency C-section in an attempt to save the unborn girl, but a bullet had struck the child as well, Kennelly said.

A co-worker who dropped Gee off at the apartment told police the woman said she feared for her life because Cunningham had threatened her, police said.

Hennigan said her sister also had confided to her about her boyfriend’s possessive nature but never complained about physical threats.

Hennigan said the couple had been together for about nine months in an on-and-off relationship. While Cunningham was not on the lease, he was living at the apartment, Gee’s family said.

“She was a very kind person,” Gee’s father, John Lundy, said. “She lived a good life. She just got hooked up with the wrong person.”

Gee worked in the food service department at Gulf Greyhound Park and was regarded as an “excellent and conscientious employee,” Gulf Greyhound Park manager Sally Briggs said.

“She was the sweetest person in the whole complex,” Enchanted Oaks Apartments manager Maria Garcia said. “She stayed to herself, didn’t go out much. She was always very nice.”

Hennigan said her sister was an “open-hearted, kind, sweet, loving mother.”

Kennelly said police are looking into conflicting stories from Cunningham, who told police the shooting was an accident as he and Gee wrestled over a gun during an argument.

Kennelly said Gee’s daughter described a different scene in the apartment.

“My niece is really upset,” Hennigan. “She’s seen her mama get shot. She had to make the 911 call. It’s devastating for her.

“My nephew, he’s a mama’s baby. It’s going to be hard on them.”