2 cheerleaders shot after trying to get into the wrong car in grocery store parking lot
Two cheerleaders were shot, one left with critical injuries, when a man opened fire in a Texas grocery store parking lot after one of the athletes accidentally tried to get into the wrong car, according to police and the owner of a cheerleading gym.
Officers responded to reports of shots fired at the H-E-B supermarket in Elgin, Texas, about 25 miles northeast of Austin, early Tuesday night, according to the Elgin Police Department.
Police said an "altercation occurred" before the man fired into a vehicle in the parking lot, injuring two people inside.
The man, identified as 25-year-old Pedro Tello Rodriguez Jr., was taken into custody and charged with deadly conduct, a third-degree felony, according to police.
One of the victims, 18-year-old Payton Washington, sustained serious injuries and was transported to an area hospital by helicopter, police and her family said.
Washington’s father, Kelan Washington, told NBC News his daughter, who was born with one lung, had her spleen removed and is recovering in the ICU at Dell Seton Medical Center at The University of Texas in Austin.
"Payton's accomplished everything she has with only one lung (from) when she was born," he said. "She’s as tough as they come."
Washington, a cheerleader at Woodlands Elite Cheer Company, was headed home from practice with three fellow athletes when they stopped at the H-E-B, her father told NBC News.
The grocery store was the "designated carpool site" for the athletes to travel to their cheerleading gym in Houston from Austin, he said.
Washington's father said one of the athletes accidentally tried to get into the wrong car, and then a man "raised his hands and then brandished his weapon and then just started shooting at the girls."
The alleged suspect did not exchange any words with the athletes before opening fire, he said.
"You watched her walk up to your door on accident, it's a girl in a cheer outfit," he said.
Washington's father also said the other cheerleaders involved in the shooting are doing "fine" and are supporting his daughter.
"They’re family. Those girls are Payton’s sisters basically in spirit and in team camaraderie," he said. "Of course they’re very concerned about their sister, they’re very concerned about their leader. Payton was the leader of this cheer squad in Houston."
He added his family wants "accountability for sure" for the suspect.
"This young man has to deal with the next call, his own recollection and reflection of what he’s done and whatever God has for him. That’s a sentence in itself that he has to work through," he said.
Elgin Police did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NBC News, but said in an April 18 press release the investigation is still ongoing and additional or enhanced charges may be added.
The other victim of the shooting, Heather Roth, was grazed in the leg by a bullet, KPRC reported. Roth spoke out about the incident during a prayer vigil Tuesday evening at her cheerleading gym, according to KPRC.
"I just saw a black figure in the passenger seat, and I just shut the door as fast as I could," Roth said.
Roth said she went up to the vehicle thinking it was her car. But when she noticed a man on the passenger side, she ran away and found the right car, where the other girls were waiting.
"I see the guy get out of the passenger door," she said. "And I rolled my window down, and I was trying to apologize to him… and my window was halfway down, and he just threw his hands up and he pulled out a gun, and then he just started shooting at all of us."
Lynne Shearer, owner of Woodlands Elite Cheer Company, confirmed Washington's account that four cheerleaders from her gym were involved in the shooting, and that they carpool from the Austin area to the gym outside of Houston, she told NBC affiliates KPRC and KXAN.
"It was unfortunate. These girls were just trying to get home," Shearer told KXAN, adding the man fired about five shots into the vehicle.
She said the cheerleaders had "grown up" in her gym.
"We’ve known them for years, some of them literally, since they were 8, 10 years old," Shearer said. "So they’re like our family."
A GoFundMe organized by the Woodlands Elite Generals to help cover hospital bills for Washington had raised more than $70,000 as of Wednesday afternoon.
"She’s literally one of the very best that’s ever done this sport… she won’t be competing this weekend unfortunately she has more surgeries in front of her," Shearer told KPRC.
“She’s won every title there is to win in All-Star Cheerleading,” Shearer added. “She’s literally a role model for kids in this industry. Throughout the country, everybody knows her.”
Woodlands Elite did not immediately respond a request for comment from NBC News.
The Texas shooting comes days after two other high-profile incidents where the victims were allegedly shot after mistakenly arriving at the wrong address.
Last week, 16-year-old Ralph Yarl was shot in the head and seriously injured after he rang the wrong doorbell to pick up his younger siblings in Kansas City, Missouri, police and attorneys for the Yarl family said. The shooting has sparked protests and nationwide outrage.
Days later, 20-year-old Kaylin Gillis was shot and killed when the vehicle she was in pulled into the wrong driveway while she and some friends were looking for a friend's house in upstate New York, according to police.
This article was originally published on TODAY.com
