The 11-month-old baby girl found in a home by authorities during a SWAT situation in Forsyth County Monday has died, a sheriff's office spokesman said.
SWAT team members entered the Carleen Court home Monday around 6:30 p.m., finding little Ava Ashraf injured from a gunshot. They discovered her father dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Salman Ashraf, 34, had allegedly threatened his wife and daughter with a handgun earlier in the day. Authorities scrambled to the scene, getting a 911 call from his wife, who phoned from a neighbor's house. The situation unfolded in the Vistas at Castleberry Subdivision off of Castleberry Road.
The roughly 3:39 p.m. response set in motion 3 hours of repeated efforts by deputies, the sheriff's office crisis negotiations team, SWAT team members and a family member to communicate with Salman, who was in the house. Authorities had also learned Ava was with him.
Deputies initially made phone contact with Salman, who agreed to come out, but never did.
"During their brief conversation, nothing threatening was said or implied by the suspect, and no shots were fired at or by any deputies," Deputy Doug Rainwater said Tuesday.
After exhausting efforts to communicate with Salman, Rainwater said the SWAT team went into the home with a negotiation phone. That's when they heard sounds from Ava.
"We grabbed the baby and did all we could at that moment to get the baby out of there and into an ambulance to be transported to a hospital," Rainwater said earlier this week.
Deputies took Ava's mother to the hospital to be with her. The 11-month-old was later flown to an Atlanta-area hospital in critical condition.
Ava Ashraf passed away Wednesday morning. Her mother is with family members, Rainwater said Thursday.
