Shooting of Payton Washington

Last updated
Shooting of Payton Washington
Location Elgin, Texas, U.S.
DateApril 18, 2023 (2023-04-18)
c. 12:00 a.m. (CST)
Attack type
Shooting
Injured2
AccusedPedro Tello Rodriguez Jr.
ChargesDeadly conduct

Just after midnight on April 18, 2023, competitive cheerleaders Payton Washington and Heather Roth were shot and wounded after Roth mistakenly entered a vehicle she had thought to be hers in an H-E-B supermarket parking lot in Elgin, Texas. [1] [2] Washington and Roth were part of a four-person group of cheerleaders who were using the parking lot to carpool from the Round Rock area to Woodlands Elite Cheer Company in Oak Ridge North for practice, a 360-mile round trip. [3]

Contents

The shooting gained notoriety for being one of four shootings that occurred in a one-week period in the US that were characterized by young people being met with gunfire after making a mistake. The cheerleaders were shot five days after the shooting of Ralph Yarl in Kansas City, Missouri after he rang the wrong doorbell, three days after the shooting of Kaylin Gillis in Hebron, New York after she entered the wrong driveway, [4] and earlier on the same day that Kinsley White and her parents were shot by a neighbor in Gastonia, North Carolina, when her basketball rolled into his yard. [5]

Incident

Payton Washington, aged 18, Heather Roth, aged 21, and two other Woodlands Elite Cheer Company cheerleaders were returning to their vehicles in the H-E-B parking lot when Roth mistakenly opened the door of a vehicle she thought to be hers, and found Pedro Tello Rodriguez Jr. in the passenger seat. After initially panicking and thinking there was a stranger in her car, she got inside the vehicle of one of her friends. Rodriguez then exited his vehicle, and Roth rolled down the car window to apologize to him, but he threw up his hands and opened fire, wounding her and Washington. [6]

After shooting the two women, Rodriguez fled the scene and went to his house, where he was arrested by police. The H-E-B manager witnessed the shooting and identified him as the suspect. [3]

Victims

Two of the cheerleaders were wounded in the shooting. Heather Roth was grazed by a bullet but Payton Washington was shot twice, in the leg and in the back, and was critically wounded. As a result of her injuries, Washington had to have her spleen removed. [2] [3]

Accused

The suspect was identified as 25-year-old Pedro Tello Rodriguez Jr., an Elgin resident at the time of the shooting. [7] Pedro Tello Rodriguez Jr. was arrested in connection with the shooting later the same day after the supermarket manager identified him and surveillance footage connected him to the incident. [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">D.C. sniper attacks</span> 2002 series of coordinated shootings in the Washington, D.C. area

The D.C. sniper attacks were a series of coordinated shootings that occurred during three weeks in October 2002 throughout the Washington metropolitan area, consisting of the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia. Ten people were killed, and three others were critically wounded.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brabant killers</span> Belgian gang

The Brabant killers, also named the Nijvel Gang in Dutch-speaking media, and the mad killers of Brabant in French-speaking media, are responsible for a series of violent attacks that mainly occurred in the Belgian province of Brabant between 1982 and 1985. A total of 28 people died and 22 were injured. The actions of the gang, believed to consist of a core of three men, made it Belgium's most notorious unsolved crime spree. The active participants were known as The Giant ; the Killer and the Old Man. The identities and whereabouts of the "Brabant killers" are unknown. Although significant resources are still dedicated to the case, the most recent arrests are of the now-retired original senior detectives themselves, for alleged evidence tampering.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shootout</span> Combat between two parties using firearms, typically in a non-military context

A shootout, also called a firefight, gunfight, or gun battle, is a combat situation between armed parties using guns. The term can be used to describe any such fight, though it is typically used in a non-military context or to describe combat situations primarily using firearms.

In early 2009, a series of gang-related shootings occurred due to what police describe as a gang war in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Alleged participants include the Independent Soldiers, the Sanghera Crime Group, the Buttar Gang, the Bacon Brothers, the United Nations Gang, the Red Scorpions, and the Vancouver chapter of the Hells Angels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2009 Lakewood shooting</span> 2009 murder of four Lakewood police officers in Parkland, Washington, USA

On November 29, 2009, four police officers of Lakewood, Washington were fatally shot at the Forza Coffee shop, located at 11401 Steele Street #108 South in the Parkland unincorporated area of Pierce County, Washington, near Tacoma. A gunman, later identified as Maurice Clemmons, entered the shop, shot the officers while they worked on laptops, and fled the scene with a single gunshot wound in his torso. After a massive two-day manhunt that spanned several nearby cities, an officer recognized Clemmons near a stalled car in south Seattle. When he refused orders to stop, he was shot and killed by a Seattle Police Department officer.

The 2010 Palestinian militancy campaign was a coordinated effort by 13 Palestinian militant groups, led by Islamist group Hamas, to derail peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The campaign consisted of attacks against Israelis in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Israel in which, according to a Hamas declaration in early September, "all options are open". The participating groups also included Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Popular Resistance Committees and an unnamed splinter group of Fatah. Some Israeli and Palestinian officials and analysts familiar with Hamas believe that the true target of the campaign is the Palestinian Authority, which is led by Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah.

Menace of Destruction (MOD), formerly known as Masters of Destruction, is a Hmong street gang created in 1988. Today, it is active in California, Midwestern United States, and many places with large Hmong communities. It is known for murders, fights, shootings, and weapon and drug trafficking.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2015 Waco shootout</span> Shootout that erupted at a Twin Peaks restaurant in Waco, Texas, US

On May 17, 2015, in Waco, Texas, United States, a shootout erupted at a Twin Peaks restaurant where more than 200 persons, including members from motorcycle clubs that included the Bandidos, Cossacks, and allies, had gathered for a meeting about political rights for motorcyclists. Law enforcement, which included 18 members of the Waco police and four state troopers, had gathered to monitor the restaurant and meeting from outside, and, according to police, "returned fire after being shot at". Nine bikers were killed, 18 others wounded or injured, and 177 individuals were ultimately arrested and initially detained in connection with the shootout, most for alleged participation in organized crime. According to The New York Times, "the response by prosecutors was widely criticized as brazen overreach". According to the Waco Tribune-Herald, the shootout led to a "four-year prosecutorial fiasco that resulted in zero convictions."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carcassonne and Trèbes attack</span> Terrorist attack in southern France in 2018

On 23 March 2018, there was a series of Islamist terrorist attacks in the towns of Carcassonne and Trèbes in southern France. Redouane Lakdim, a 25-year-old French Moroccan, shot the two occupants of a car in Carcassonne, killing the passenger and hijacking it. He then opened fire on four police officers, seriously wounding one. Lakdim drove to nearby Trèbes, where he stormed a Super U supermarket, killing two civilians, wounding others, and taking at least one hostage. He swore allegiance to the Islamic State and demanded the release of Salah Abdeslam, the only surviving suspect of the November 2015 Paris attacks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Botham Jean</span> 2018 murder case in Texas

On the night of September 6, 2018, 26-year-old accountant Botham Jean was murdered when off-duty Dallas Police Department patrol officer Amber Guyger entered Jean's apartment in Dallas, Texas, and fatally shot him. Guyger, who said that she had entered Jean's apartment believing it was her own and believed Jean to be a burglar, was initially charged with manslaughter. The absence of a murder charge led to protests and accusations of racial bias, since Jean was a black man and unarmed and was killed in his own home by a white off-duty officer who had apparently disregarded police protocols. On November 30, 2018, Guyger was indicted on a charge of murder. On October 1, 2019, she was found guilty of murder, and was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment the following day. The ruling was upheld on appeal in 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shooting of David Ortiz</span>

On the evening of June 9, 2019, Dominican-American retired professional baseball player David Ortiz, formerly of the Boston Red Sox and Minnesota Twins, was shot and severely wounded while at a bar in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Ortiz survived and received emergency medical treatment, while an investigation quickly resulted in the arrest of several suspects in the attack. The suspected shooter was identified as Rolfi Ferreira Cruz. It was quickly reported that the attack was a paid hit job. On June 19, the Dominican Attorney General announced that Ortiz was shot by mistake, with another person named Sixto David Fernandez being the intended target of the shooting. Accounts of the event changed over time, leading to doubts about the truthfulness of the official account.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Carla Walker</span> Victim of solved cold case

Carla Jan Walker was an American homicide victim abducted from a bowling alley parking lot in Fort Worth, Texas on February 17, 1974. Her body was found three days later in a drainage ditch just 30 minutes south of Fort Worth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2022 Buffalo shooting</span> Mass shooting in Buffalo, New York

On May 14, 2022, a mass shooting occurred in a terrorist attack in Buffalo, New York, United States, at a Tops Friendly Markets supermarket in the East Side neighborhood. Ten people, all of whom were Black, were murdered and three were injured. The shooter, identified as 18-year-old Payton S. Gendron, livestreamed part of the attack on Twitch, but the livestream was shut down by the service in under two minutes. Gendron was taken into custody and charged with first-degree murder. He formally entered a plea of "not guilty" on May 19, 2022. On November 28, 2022, Gendron pleaded guilty to all state charges in the shooting, including murder, domestic terrorism, and hate crimes. On February 15, 2023, Gendron was sentenced to 11 consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole; as of that date, federal charges are still ongoing.

Juan Rodriguez Chavez, known as The Thrill Killer, was an American serial killer and spree killer who, together with a teenage accomplice, killed eleven people in Dallas, Texas during a crime spree lasting from March to July 1995, shortly after being paroled from prison for a murder conviction. For the latter crimes, Chavez was sentenced to death and subsequently executed in 2003.

Richard Ward, 32, was fatally shot on February 22, 2022, by Pueblo County deputy Charles McWhorter during an incident in Liberty Point International Middle School in Pueblo West, Colorado.

On April 13, 2023, Ralph Yarl, a 16-year-old African American teenager, was shot and wounded after ringing the doorbell to the wrong house in Kansas City, Missouri. Yarl was attempting to pick up his twin brothers and ended up at the wrong address, according to family members.

On April 15, 2023, 20-year-old Kaylin Gillis was shot and killed in Hebron, New York after the car in which she was traveling turned onto the wrong driveway. The alleged shooter, Kevin D. Monahan, was arrested after a standoff and taken into custody, where he was charged with second-degree murder.

References

  1. "Texas cheerleaders shot after one says she got in wrong car". AP News . 2023-04-19. Retrieved 2022-04-19.
  2. 1 2 Land, Olivia (2023-04-19). "Texas cheerleader recalls being shot at after mistakenly getting into wrong car". New York Post . Retrieved 2022-04-19.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Ryan, Shannon (2023-04-19). "Man arrested after 2 Woodlands Elite cheerleaders were shot outside HEB near Austin, police say". KTRK-TV . Retrieved 2023-04-19.
  4. Ebrahimji, Alisha; Burnside, Tina (2023-04-19). "2 cheerleaders were shot in a Texas supermarket parking lot after one opened the door to the wrong vehicle. A suspect is under arrest". CNN . Retrieved 2023-04-19.
  5. Lemon, Ken (2023-04-20). "Suspect, accused of injuring child, parents in shooting, arrested in Florida". WSOC-TV . Retrieved 2023-04-21.
  6. Bailey, Chelsea (2023-04-19). "Two Texas cheerleaders shot after one gets into wrong car". BBC News. Retrieved 2023-04-28.
  7. "Shooting at an H-E-B leads an arrest of a 25-year-old Mexican-American in Elgin, Texas, caught on surveillance". KEYE. 19 April 2023.