Posted on 04/19/2023 11:32:56 AM PDT by Red Badger
One of the victims was critically injured in the shooting that unfolded early Tuesday outside an H-E-B supermarket in Elgin, Texas, police said.
A man has been arrested after two Texas cheerleaders were shot, one critically, after one of them mistakenly got into the wrong car, according to police and the owner of the gym where they trained.
Officers in Elgin, about 25 miles northeast of Austin, responded to reports of shots fired outside an H-E-B supermarket around 12:15 a.m. local time (1:15 a.m. ET) Tuesday, the Elgin Police Department said in a news release.
"Information suggests that an altercation occurred in the parking lot of H-E-B, and multiple shots were fired into a vehicle," police said. Two of the car's occupants were struck by gunfire, with one victim sustaining serious injuries and transported by helicopter to a hospital, where they were listed in critical condition, police said.
The suspect, Pedro Tello Rodriguez Jr., 25, has been charged with deadly conduct, a third-degree felony, police said.
Lynn Shearer, owner of Woodlands Elite Cheer Co., told NBC affiliate KXAN of Austin that the two people shot were cheerleaders who were on their way home from practice.
Shearer said the cheerleaders typically carpooled from the Austin area to her gym. On Monday night, she said at least four cheerleaders were on their way back to the Austin area and had to stop at an H-E-B, where some of the members had parked their cars.
One of the girls accidentally tried to get into the wrong car, Shearer said. That's when, she said, a "guy got out and they saw that he had a gun. And so they tried to speed off and he shot his gun, like five times or so into the car." Woodlands Elite did not immediately respond to an overnight request for comment. The Elgin Police Department also did not immediately respond to an overnight request from NBC News seeking to confirm these details.
According to ABC News, Heather Roth, a cheerleader with the Woodlands Elite, said in an Instagram Live post that she was the one who got out of her friend's car and opened the door of another vehicle she thought was her own, only to notice a man was in the passenger seat. She said she got out of the car and back into her friend's vehicle, the report said.
Roth reportedly said the man approached their vehicle and she rolled down a window to apologize. That's when the man started shooting, she said, according to ABC News. The Instagram Live post was no longer available early Wednesday, but Roth shared a number of posts that appeared to be related to the incident. She did not immediately respond to overnight request for comment.
Victim critically injured known as a 'role model' Shearer identified the cheerleader who was critically injured in the shooting as Payton Washington, of the Round Rock Independent School District.
“She’s won every title there is to win in all-star cheerleading. She’s literally a role model for the kids in this industry throughout the country,” Shearer said. “Everybody knows her. She’s literally one of the very best that’s ever done this sport.”
Messages of support for Washington have poured in on social media in the wake of the shooting, with a prayer organized by Woodlands Elite held Tuesday. Meanwhile, a GoFundMe page organized by the Woodlands Elite Generals to help raise money to cover her hospital costs had raised more than $60,800 as of early Wednesday.
The GoFundMe page said Washington was "stable in the ICU and will have a long road to recovery."
Shearer said the cheerleaders had "grown up" in her gym. "We’ve known them for years, some of them literally, since they were, you know, 8, 10 years old,” she said. “So they’re like our family.”
The shooting, she said "was unfortunate. These girls were just trying to get home."
As Washington faces a long road to recovery, Shearer said, she and the Woodlands Elite team would be there to support her and others affected by the shooting every step of the way.
“Our goal right now is to take it one day at a time and be there for them,” Shearer said.
Shooting comes following 2 similar incidents The shooting comes on the heels of two other eerily similar high-profile incidents in which the victims were allegedly shot after mistakenly approaching the wrong addresses.
Last week, 16-year-old Ralph Yarl was shot and seriously injured after mistakenly ringing the wrong doorbell in Kansas City, Missouri, while trying to pick up his siblings in an incident that sparked national outrage.
Just days later, Kaylin Gillis, 20, was fatally shot by a homeowner after the car she was riding in mistakenly turned into the wrong driveway in upstate New York.
The two incidents sparked a national conversation around gun violence and “stand your ground” laws, according to which a would-be shooter defending life or property does not have to retreat before taking violent action. The shooting of the cheerleaders is likely to further fuel the discussion.
Did the car owner think it was an attempt to steal his vehicle?
We don’t know why....................yet.............
Makes you wonder if the incessant car jackings, home invasions, and gang proliferation has got people really on edge lately.
Lots of weird shootings of people going to the wrong house and now getting into the wrong car.
People are reaching their breaking points, and have zero tolerance for anything anymore.
The progs destruction of society and culture advances onward.
Heterosupremecists!
Good point.
apparently the cheerleaders were coming home from a cheer function and had parked some of their cars in a grocery store parking lot and car pooled together from there. Upon returning to the lot, they got out of the car pool car and started to enter what they thought was their car and discovered someone in the passenger seat and quickly realized their mistake and ran back into the car pool car. At which time the man who had been in the passenger seat of his car got out of his car and walked up to the car pool car full of cheerleaders and started shooting into the car full of girls.
I wonder if the man shot them because he was afraid of something they might have seen. Very paranoid and angry behavior.
Good point.
There must be more to the story. A young girl, presumeably unarmed and not threatening, gets in the wrong car and gets shot? And that’s the whole story? It’s hard to believe this is the whole story.
What does being hot have to do with getting shot?
A plain girl gets shot and “meh, there must’ve been a reason. Look at her! “
Lol.
Pervy comment.
The folks are scared because of the out-of-control violent crime. They think that anybody who approaches them is going to kill them.
This means that an important element of a civilized society is gone. Trust.
its worse than that, she immediately jumped out and back into the car she got out of that was FULL of other cheerleaders, and the guy from the car she accidentally got into got out walked over to the car full of girls and started shooting into it as the terrified girls drove off screaming.
Wow... In the video, her mother says doctors told her to abort because the baby would never make it. Mom refused. The baby was born and lost a lung. Then, the child grew to become this talented gymnast and cheerleader.
This would have been a good opportunity to insert "figuratively," so to speak. ;o)
Doesn’t really matter much as far as the law is concerned. Even in Texas, you can’t use deadly force unless there is forced entry into the vehicle, or some other extenuating circumstance. You could use force to get someone out of the vehicle if they just open the unlocked door and get in, but not deadly force. You can’t even do that if they already exited your vehicle and left you alone though, unless they took some property from you or something like that.
Yet no mention of the growing deathtoll in chicagostan.
Anybody that scared should just move to the middle of nowhere. Someone shooting a kid who just went to the wrong address or the wrong car is every bit as much of a blight and tumor on society as any gang-banger or druggie.
A group of super hot cheerleaders pulls up next to you and one attempts to get into your car, you respond by:
A. flirting
B. Getting their phone number
c. Getting out and shooting up their car nearly killing them
Anyone who answers C needs to be locked up.
I see a united attack on ‘stand your ground’ is now a prevailing tactic.
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