Police say shooter targeting pedestrians
Warning is issued about man wanted in drive-by incidents
Houston and Baytown police are looking for a man they said is linked to three drive-by shootings, one deadly, all incidents in which the gunman was possibly targeting someone just walking down a street.
At a news conference Wednesday, police from both agencies released a composite sketch of the suspect wanted in a deadly shooting in August in Baytown and in two shootings in the Heights area, including the drive-by shooting of a man who was walking his dog last month.
Authorities said they believe the cases are related because the gunman appears to be using the same car, a silver or gray Chevrolet Malibu, and appears to be targeting people who are walking down the street.
“Any kind of death is tragic, but for someone to be driving around shooting at people is tragic,” said Baytown Police Department’s Lt. Steve Dorris. “There’s no other word for it.”
The motive for the shootings is unknown, police said.
The sketch shows a man who police think is in his late 20s to early 30s and about 6 feet 2 inches tall. A witness from one of the cases helped with descriptions for the sketch, police said.
In the Baytown incident, 84year-old Sam Wingate was walking with another man on the 9600 block of Pinehurst drive around 6 a.m. on Aug. 15. Baytown police said a car drove by and fired several shots at the two men. Wingate, who was shot in the back, died days later.
The same gunman, authorities said, is likely responsible for two shootings in the Heights.
In one of the shootings 38-yearold Piotr Lewandowski was walking his dog on Oct. 16 when a gunman pulled his car up to the intersection of Cortlandt and 22nd Street around 9:30 p.m..
The suspect began shooting, got out of his car, and then continued shooting, police said.
Police said the community helped find Lewandowski’s dog and returned it to him a few days after the shooting.
The two Heights shootings happened within weeks of each other. The other also involved a person walking down the street, but police would not provide further information on that case.
Dorris said Baytown police is offering a Crime Stoppers reward up to $20,000 for information on the Baytown case.
Anyone with information on this case is asked to contact the HPD Major Assaults & Family Violence Division at 713-308-8800 or Crime Stoppers at 713-222-8477.