Spate of violence pushes city’s death toll near 200
4 separate shootings continue monthslong uptick in murder rate
A violent night left at least four people dead in separate shootings as the murder rate in Houston continues to outpace prior years.
The shootings coincide with the Houston Police Department noting that they are one death shy of 200 — a 35 percent increase from the same time during 2020, when violent crime continued to rise amid the pandemic. During the same year-todate stretch in 2019, officials said investigators were reviewing 105 killings.
In 2020, the number of murder cases surpassed 400 — ending last year as the eighth worst murder rate, calculated by the
number of known murders per 100,000 people, in three decades.
The latest death toll is considered preliminary and may not include the shootings that happened late Tuesday and Wednesday — three of which happened in south Houston and a fourth in Fifth Ward.
Police rushed to the first shooting Tuesday around 8:30 p.m. in the 9700 block of Stella Link Road where a man was killed at a gas pump. A group of at least three men approached the patron and a fight erupted, authorities said.
One of the men brandished a weapon and opened fire, killing him, police said. The suspects fled in a white truck.
About two hours later, police said an elderly landlord in the 6000 block of Glenhurst Drive shot and killed a tenant during a fight over rent.
The homeowner, who uses a wheelchair, locked the tenant out and told him not to come back after failing to pay rent. The man returned and kicked down the door, police said.
The homeowner, whom police described as cooperative, fatally shot the tenant during the ensuing fight, according to authorities. No one answered the door later on Wednesday and charges are pending the outcome of a grand jury.
Police responded to another fatal shooting around 12:20 a.m. Wednesday in the 4000 block of Market Street, where a man in his 60s was found in the road with a gunshot wound to the chest.
“There were some personal items that were on him so we do not believe this was a robbery at this time,” Sgt. Joshua Horn said.
The gun violence continued through Wednesday when around 6:30 a.m., a 25-year-old man was fatally shot in the 7000 block of Bellfort Avenue.
Officers were dispatched to a parking lot and found the man deceased in his parked car, police said.
At least four other people were shot through the morning but survived their injuries. A man and woman were wounded around 12:45 a.m. somewhere near downtown Houston.
The assailant, among three men, opened fire on a pickup with the two — one of whom was the driver. The motorist managed to drive to the intersection of Franklin and Austin, near the Harris County Civil Courthouse, with a gunshot wound to the torso.
The passenger was struck in the neck. Both were taken to a hospital in critical condition.
Lt. Ronnie Willkens said investigators were not yet sure where the shooting happened but that the gunman walked up to their vehicle.
“She said someone walked up on them and started shooting,” Willkens said. “They drove as fast as they could and they ended up here.”
A student at North Forest High School was also shot around 10:30 a.m. Wednesday on the northeast Houston campus. The 18-year-old suspect fled in a truck and police cautioned that the incident did not involve an active shooter.
Police said the student, who was not the intended target, was shot in the hand.
Houston surpassed 100 murder cases in April with the death of a pregnant woman.
Chief Troy Finner, who in April took over the police department, said he has rearranged personnel to tackle the rise in killings. Other cities, he said, are grappling with the same issue.
“The homicide numbers are up just as any other major city right now,” Finner said last year during a news conference. “We’ve moved troops around, we’ve increased homicide investigators.”
The number of violent crimes happening over a weekend in Houston, Finner said, are more akin to when he joined the police department three decades earlier, when the murder rate was at its highest.
He pointed to a delay in trials within the Harris County courts system as part of the problem.
Violent crime, which has been declining in recent years, increased during the pandemic months, with aggravated assaults driving that uptick.