HOUSTON — A southwest Houston community is mourning the loss of a 90-year-old Navy veteran who was killed during a carjacking over the weekend.
Houston police are still looking for the person responsible.
Neighbors say Nelson Beckett was the first person to buy a home on their block 40 years ago. He sold it two years ago before moving nine blocks away to a living facility complex where his life was taken two days ago.
“My daughters and I went to celebrate his 90th birthday party with his family where everything happened,” former longtime neighbor Robin Patterson said.
Patterson said she and her husband Ronald Patterson were neighbors to Beckett for 17 years.
“To be the age that he was the things he would do, especially cutting his own yard. He would cut his yard every week,” Ronald Patterson said.
When the Pattersons heard Saturday that an elderly man was shot and killed during an argument outside Lone Star Living Independent Retirement Community where Nelson lived, they checked in with him.
“I texted, I was like, 'Hey Mr. Nelson, I heard something happened at your facility, are you OK?' But I never received a text back,” Robin told us.
Investigators said a man who shot Beckett also hit him with the car, which was described as a white sedan.
HPD said the 90-year-old veteran’s car was later found at an apartment complex on Dunlap Street, less than three miles from where the facility is.
The Pattersons remember Beckett for his kindness.
“He helped a lot of people around here a lot of the times if people need a ride or something to the store he’d be there and help them,” Ronald said.
“He looked out for our home when he would go on vacation. He stepped up when my mom passed, my brother passed, he was always there,” Robin said.
Nelson’s son and daughter shared this statement about their dad.
"He was the kindest, funniest man you’d ever meet. He loved meeting people and greeted them all with jokes and his famous business card, which said 'my card.' He loved to make someone laugh and brighten their day. To him, everyone had value. He spent his days driving people places who did not have a car. Driving them to doctors appointments, FEMA, rehab, stores, etc., wherever they needed to go. He would drive some friends from a halfway house to panhandle and take them to church on Sundays. He even baptized several of them. He would do anything for anyone. He loved big and loved his family so much."
Along with his children, Beckett is survived by five grandchildren and six great-grandchildren with another on the way.
Now, family and friends are hoping someone who knows something will come forward to help catch Beckett's killer. A $15,000 reward is being offered.
RELATED: Reward money up to $15K to find person who killed 90-year-old Navy veteran in southwest Houston
