Officials seek motive in vet’s fatal shooting
Crime Stoppers boosts its reward for information to $20K
A slain elderly Korean War veteran was determined to walk out of a Baytown hospital alive and find his assailant after being shot alongside his best friend during a predawn walk, according to his grief-stricken family.
The shooter took aim at 84year-old Sam Wingate and his neighbor from a car and fired, striking him with two rounds in the stomach and back during the Aug. 15 attack, said Donnie Wingate, the victim’s son.
The pals were a block from Wingate’s home. Another bullet grazed his decadelong friend’s clothes.
One of the gunshots struck Wingate’s spinal cord and paralyzed him 3 inches below his sternum, the son said. He died Sun- day, according to authorities.
“He just started going downhill, and he couldn’t catch up,” Donnie Wingate told the Houston Chronicle earlier this week. “It was a raw deal.”
His father, a retired plumber for Goose Creek Consolidated Independent School District, survived the four-hour surgery to remove the bullets. When he came to, the tough-as-nails Navy veteran demanded to know who shot him and why.
“I spoke to him. I asked, ‘Do you have any enemies?’ ” Wingate recalled. “I don’t have any enemies in the world,” he quoted his father as saying.
He said his father was unable to catch a good look at his assailant.
The distraught son recalled that the past year has been tough for Wingate and the rest of the family. His father’s Baytown home flooded when Hurricane Harvey slammed the region. His mother and Wingate’s wife of 61 years, Shirley Wingate, died in
December after struggling with Alzheimer’s disease.
Authorities are just as befuddled by the motive and were unable to say during a press conference Thursday if the shooting was targeted or random.
“We just don’t know at this point,” Baytown police spokesman Lt. Steve Dorris said.
The lack of answers prompted Baytown Crime Stoppers on Thursday to increase the reward for information leading to the arrest of Wingate’s killer from $5,000 to $20,000, Dorris announced.
“If anybody knows anything, please pick up the phone and call Crime Stoppers. We need the public’s help on this case so we can bring the killer to justice,” he added.
Wingate’s daughter, Kelly Dando, echoed Dorris’ plea for information.
“There’s just evil people walking among us,” Dando said. “We have got to find these people.”
Last week, investigators released surveillance footage of a light colored four-door sedan believed to be connected to the slaying. The car may be a Chevrolet missing a front license plate, police said.