PD: Teen Killed, Sexually Assaulted Saginaw 6-Year-Old
SAGINAW (CBSDFW.COM) - Six-year-old Alanna Gallagher was sexually assaulted, before she was killed and her body dumped on a residential Saginaw street, according to the capital murder arrest warrant.
The warrant names 17-year-old Tyler Holder as the suspect – and confirms his DNA matches that which was found on Gallagher's body. Holder lives with his mother two houses down the street from where Gallagher lived.
As members of the Saginaw Police Department, the FBI Safe Streets Task Force, and the North Texas Major Case Investigative Team served the arrest and search warrant at Holder's home on Tuesday morning, police say Holder fired a gun at officers, hitting Arlington Police Officer Charles Lodatto in the leg. Officer Lodatto is recovering from his injuries. Police returned fire, hitting Holder in the head. He is in critical condition.
According to the arrest warrant, Holder placed "plastic bags over her head, using tape to tape the bags around her neck, suffocating her." Gallagher's nude body was found bound with tape, placed in a garbage bag and wrapped in a tarp on July 1.
The arrest warrant states a witness told police she had seen the same kind of tarp in Holder's backyard several months ago, but the tarp was missing after Gallagher was killed. According to the arrest warrant, police are awaiting results of additional tests that they believe will link Holder with the murder.
Parent Lisa Arnold lives in the same Saginaw neighborhood and has known Holder since he was in 5th grade. She describes him as a trouble maker and says she tried to keep her kids away from him.
"He came over. Sometimes he seemed fine, and then he would ask my kids about drugs in the 5th grade. And that's when I told him he needed to stay away," she said.
Arnold remembers talking to Holder on the street as neighbors gathered the night Gallagher's body was found. She says he acted pleasant and casual, as if nothing had happened.
Neighbor Yolanda Sierra says she remembers Holder showing up for a memorial held in the Gallagher's honor wearing a shirt that read "Wanted."
"I noticed him coming around with the shirt," she recalled. "And I thought, 'That's the same kid on her street. Why is he here in this wanted t-shirt? It's inappropriate. It's not something to wear to a child being remembered. She was murdered.'"
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