2 Texas cheerleaders were shot after one of them accidentally got into the wrong car after practice

Natalie Musumeci
Updated ·2 min read
42
Woodlands Elite Cheer Company shared a tribute to the teens on Instagram.
Woodlands Elite Cheer Company shared a tribute to the teens on Instagram.Woodlands Elite Cheer Company/Instagram

  • Two Texas high school cheerleaders were shot after a practice early Tuesday.

  • The shooting happened after one of them reportedly said that they mistakenly got into the wrong car.

  • A 25-year-old man has been arrested in connection to the shooting, according Elgin police.

Two Texas high school cheerleaders were shot after one of them reportedly said she mistakenly got into the wrong car while the teens were on their way home from practice early Tuesday morning.

Elgin, Texas, police arrested 25-year-old Pedro Tello Rodriguez Jr. on a charge of deadly conduct, a third-degree felony, in connection to the 12:15 a.m. shooting in the parking lot of an H-E-B supermarket.

"Information suggests that an altercation occurred in the parking lot of HEB, and multiple shots were fired into a vehicle," the Elgin Police Department said in a press release.

One victim was treated and released at the scene, while the other suffered "serious injuries" and was taken to a local hospital by helicopter in critical condition, according to police.

The shooting unfolded as four cheerleaders with the Woodlands Elite Cheer Co. were on their way home after practice, the cheer company said in a Facebook post.

"Three of our Generals and one Red Angel were viciously shot at last night in a senseless and random act of violence," reads a GoFundMe set up by the Woodlands Elite Generals team for Payton Washington, who it says was "shot twice and badly injured" during the ordeal.

Fellow cheerleader Heather Roth said on an Instagram Live video that she got out of her friend's car and opened the door to a vehicle she thought was her own in the parking lot after carpooling to the practice and found a man in the passenger seat, ABC News reported.

Roth said she then went back into her friend's car, and the man approached the vehicle. When Roth rolled down the window to apologize to the man, she said he started shooting, ABC News reported.

The incident comes after a 20-year-old woman was fatally shot in New York when she pulled into the wrong driveway and after a 16-year-old boy in Missouri was shot and injured when he mistakenly rang the wrong doorbell.

Read the original article on Insider