It was supposed to be a comfortable date and ended up in prison shortly afterwards. A 29-year-old allegedly interrupted a date with a woman in Houston to shoot a scammer.
According to media reports, 29-year-old Erick A. and his acquaintance were parked in a parking lot across from a burger restaurant in the Texas metropolis when a suspected parking attendant approached them and asked for a parking fee of $20 each. After A. paid the man, he left and the couple continued to the restaurant, reports the Washington Post, among others.
In the restaurant, a waiter pointed out that they had just been scammed. The parking attendant is a known 46-year-old scammer. A. then told his date that he would look for the man and would be back shortly. He then ran to his car and took a gun out of the trunk. Shortly afterwards, witnesses heard a shot in a side street and A. went back to his car unconcerned, stowed the gun and continued his date. He told his date that everything was fine and that he only scared the man, quotes "NBC News" from the court documents. The 46-year-old was found shortly afterwards by witnesses with a gunshot wound in the back and taken to a hospital, where only his death was determined.
Meanwhile, the woman did not notice what had happened just a few meters away. "She knows he was upset and went after the scammer. However, they both ate together until the suspect felt uncomfortable in the restaurant and they left," Rick DeToto, the woman's attorney, told the local TV channel "KPRC". The date then lasted late into the evening, also because the woman did not know what had happened.
It was only the next day that she saw surveillance images that the police published and immediately reported to the authorities. "The woman voluntarily spoke to our officers and was subsequently released without charge," Houston police said in a statement. "She wanted to do the right thing. She was shocked to see the photo of herself on the news and to hear that she was wanted," DeToto said.
Two weeks after the crime, A., who lives around 320 kilometers from Houston, was arrested by the police. The 29-year-old was sentenced to ten years probation last September. He had already been arrested in 2017 for serious bodily harm near his home. A. was brought before the judge on Thursday. He now faces a charge of murder and, if convicted, life in prison.
Gun violence is becoming a growing problem in the United States. As of April 30, the Gun Violence Archive has documented 5,902 gun violence-related deaths this year. Over the past year, the organization has registered 20,200 deaths. Several people were shot dead not far from Houston on Saturday. They had asked their neighbor to finish his drills with a gun in the front yard. The man then shot five people dead and four others were injured. The perpetrator is still on the run.
Sources: Washington Post, NBC News, KPRC, Houston Police Department
