Two cheerleaders were reportedly shot outside a Texas grocery store early Tuesday morning after one of the cheerleaders accidentally drove into the wrong car, prompting gunfire from a man inside the vehicle.
One of the victims was airlifted to a local hospital in critical condition, while the second was treated and released outside the HEB grocery store in Elgin, about 30 minutes east of Austin, the Elgin Police Department said in – a statement.
“Information suggests an altercation took place in the HEB parking lot and multiple shots were fired at a vehicle,” police said of the shooting that happened around 12:15 p.m. local time.
Pedro Tell Rodriguez, Jr., 25, was arrested and charged with deadly conduct, a third-degree felony. Additional or higher fees may apply. More information is expected to be released Wednesday afternoon, police said.
Elgin Police Department
Woodlands Elite, a local cheerleading society, said four of its cheerleaders were involved in the shooting after Monday night’s practice. The cheerleaders were identified as Payton, Keyona, Heather and Genesis.
Payton was shot twice and was admitted to an intensive care unit for her injuries “and will have a long road to recovery,” the cheerleading company said on a GoFundMe page as it raised money for the bills medical ones.
The cheerleaders used the store’s parking lot as a carpool spot after practice, cheerleader Heather Roth told Houston station KTRK.
Roth said she got out of a friend’s car and opened the door of a vehicle she thought was hers, only to find a man sitting in the passenger seat. She panicked, she said, got out of the vehicle and got back into her friend’s car.
The man followed her to her friend’s car, and when she rolled down the window to apologize, he threw his hands in the air, pulled out a gun and started shooting, he said.
Roth suffered a gunshot wound while his teammate, Payton Washington, was shot in the leg and back, police said at the station.
One of the cheerleaders’ owners, Lynne Shearer, confirmed Roth’s account to KVUE in Austin.
According to police, the shooting appears to be the latest act of violence resulting from threats being made against someone while carrying a handgun.
A 20-year-old woman was shot and killed Saturday in Hebron, New York, after she accidentally shot an unknown assailant in her driveway. A 65-year-old man came out of the home and fired two shots into the vehicle, killing Kaylin Gillis, police said.
Then on Thursday, a 16-year-old teenager was shot twice after ringing a man’s doorbell in Kansas City, Missouri. Ralph Yarl accidentally went to the wrong house, trying to pick up his younger siblings, when police say 84-year-old Andrew Lester fired a gun through the glass door, hitting Yarl in the head and in the arm.
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