Uncle slain in his front yard

Maverick Smith almost didn’t see the body of his uncle lying in a pool of blood.

Less than 30 minutes earlier Smith, 39, had been at his 9-year-old daughter’s dance class. Around 4:30, he got a call on his cell phone from a neighbor who lived in the apartment above his uncle, Victor Burke, 51.

The neighbor was frantic and incoherent. All he could make out was that his uncle had been shot and something about a woman.

Imagining that his uncle was injured, he loaded his wife and daughter into his SUV and drove to the apartment in the 3100 block of Campbell.

He rushed in through the gate in the chain-link fence enclosing the yard. His uncle’s bicycle was leaning against the fence, and he thought he must have just arrived. As he walked toward the door, a shape near the fence caught his attention.

It was his uncle, a pool of blood around his head.

“When I got there and saw him dead, I just dropped to my knees,” Smith said as he held back tears.

Houston Police Detective Richard Ridel said Burke had been shot to death and a pistol was recovered. Burke’s had been detained and taken to the police station for questioning, Ridel said.

The man, whose name was not disclosed, told Houston firefighters that he had shot Burke, Ridel said. Details of the shooting were unclear.

Burke, who had never married, moved into the apartment on Campbell about two months ago after breaking up with his girlfriend, Smith said.

He survived on disability checks and doing yard work.

“He was trying so hard to have his own business,” Smith said.

Burke was too proud to ask for help, said Maverick Smith, who lives in Humble.

The Smiths had asked Burke to move in with them, but he refused, saying they needed to pay attention to their children.