Police still searching for carjackers who killed toddler

Today's Chronicle has more on the horrible death of a 2-year-old in northeast Houston yesterday. Stephanie Garcia was killed late Tuesday when carjackers stole her parents' SUV at a car wash in the 2000 block of Vance near Jensen on the northeast side, then ran over Stephanie while making their getaway. As you'd expect, the loss hit the Garcia family hard:

"I'm so sad for my little girl, she was just about to turn 2, my little one, they killed her," [Stephanie's mother, Marisela] Varga said. "I want justice for my daughter. She was an innocent."

The family had stopped at the car wash so the father, Luis Adrian Garcia, could use a pay phone there. While he was on the phone, a man walked up and demanded Garcia's money at gunpoint. Garcia told the man he only had $2, and then a second gunman ordered Varga out of the family car. She told him she had children inside, and "the two men just began tossing [the children] out as if they were pieces of paper," Luis Garcia's brother Efren said. Varga tried to gather the kids, aged 2 through 5, but the gunmen sped over Stephanie before she could get to her mom. "They just left her there and drove off," Luis Garcia said.

The Garcias' Suburban was found Wednesday morning in the 6100 block of Morrow off West Montgomery, about five miles from the car wash. The Chronicle has photos of the family and descriptons of the suspects.