HOUSTON — It was a brazen shooting in broad daylight. It started as a robbery, but when the victim fought back, he was killed.
Surveillance video showed the horrific crime quite clearly. Inside a gas station at Cullen and Faulkner, the suspect was seen buying a beer. As he waited for his purchase, the suspect continued to look outside the store window.
“Noticing the complainant across the street, kind of watching him, and then going across the street and robbing him," Houston Police Det. D. Crowder said.
Detectives said the suspect was looking at was his victim, who was changing a flat tire across the street. Two women were helping him.
When the suspect left the store, he took his time to cross the street but then ran toward the car to rob the driver, authorities said.
“The complainant appears to have been somewhere where he may have been flashing some cash, and the suspect may have known that and therefore followed him or seen him again and decided to use the opportunity to rob him," Crowder said.
But he didn’t just rob him. The video shows the suspect assaulted and then shot the driver. The victim ran across the street, but then collapsed on the other side of the road.
The suspect fought with him again and then shot the driver in the back of the head, killing him outside the gas station. The suspect ran from the scene, but not before grabbing whatever he could off the driver.
As police work to contact the victim’s family, they hope someone recognizes the man who shot him. Police say he's 25 to 30 years old and he was wearing a red shirt and had braids in his hair.
“Somebody out there knows who this guy is. He’s a regular. We ask that they just provide us with this information so that we can get justice for this family who we haven’t even, we don’t know who his family is," Crowder said.
If you have any information about this crime, call Crime Stoppers, 713-222-TIPS.