Break in polyfamily's child murder case: Teen neighbor shoots police as they arrest him for the killing.

The Alanna Gallagher murder case — see previous post — seems solved. Alanna was the 6-year-old daughter of an MFM polyfamily in Saginaw, Texas. She was kidnapped and killed on July 1st. Suspicion hung everywhere, though police said the three parents were not considered serious suspects. Then last Friday, someone torched the family's car next to the house.

This just in:

SAGINAW — An Arlington police officer who was serving a warrant against a suspect in the Alanna Gallagher murder case was shot Tuesday morning and is in serious condition at a local hospital, authorities said.

The suspect, a 17-year-old male, was also shot. Police would not release his name, but neighbors say he is Tyler Holder. Holder’s home, at 649 Babbling Brook Drive, is just two houses down from where Alanna had lived with her parents, Karl and Laura Gallagher and Miles McDaniel.

Katherine Chaumont, an FBI spokeswoman, said officers had knocked on the suspect’s door about 9 a.m. and engaged the suspect. She said an altercation erupted, the suspect pulled out a gun, and an exchange of gunfire followed.

...Linda McDaniel, Alanna’s grandmother, said that family members had not known that investigators suspected the teen neighbor.

Asked whether her son, Miles McDaniel, or the Gallaghers were acquainted with Holder, McDaniel said, “I didn’t get the impression that they know him.”

McDaniel said her granddaughter had been taught about “stranger danger” but it would not surprise her if the bubbly, outgoing girl did not consider a neighborhood teen a threat.

“I’m afraid that maybe she equated strangers with somebody she didn’t know that approached her rather than somebody she knew by sight,” McDaniel said. “She has two older siblings so she knew a lot of the families and the kids in the neighborhood. It was a pretty relaxed neighborhood that they felt safe in.”...

The whole article (July 23, 2013).

Here's a Google News search for the latest reports, with the most recent on top.

Update: TV interview: Parents of murdered girl speak out after suspect's arrest.

Update July 27: A pretty complete roundup of the case in today's Dallas Morning News.

Update September 4, 2014: Tyler Holder pled guilty today and received a sentence of life in prison. He also got 40 years for attempted murder of the policeman and 20 years for setting the car on fire. News story.

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