Murder suspect kills man, himself
Apartment resident in Spring is caught in middle of standoff
A murder suspect on the run from Mississippi killed a bystander after hiding out in the victim’s Spring apartment during a standoff before taking his own life.
Roderick Bowers, 52, was wanted for homicide, aggravated kidnapping and aggravated domestic violence from Mississippi when U.S. marshals and officers with the Gulf Coast Violent Offenders Task Force caught up with him Thursday afternoon at an apartment complex off Rayford Road, according to Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Scott Spencer.
Police tried arresting him when he was spotted at the complex, but he allegedly pulled a gun, pointed it at the officers and fled on foot to another nearby apartment complex in the 2600 block of Harmony Park Crossing.
Once there, he somehow managed to enter an apartment, whose resident, John William Mohr, 52, of Midland, was still inside, Spencer said.
Sheriff’s office SWAT officers tried entering that apartment about 12:30 a.m. Friday but heard three gunshots, so they retreated, Spencer said. After pleading with the man to come out, officers deployed a special camera-equipped robot to inspect the apartment.
That’s when they found the resident and Bowers dead, Spencer said.
Bowers was accused of killing 32-year-old Cruz Johnson and injuring another person in a shooting Sunday in Gulfport, Miss., according to WVLT-TV. Bowers was
also accused of kidnapping a woman, who was found safe the next day, on Nov. 6.
Bowers called the TV station a few days after the shooting and admitted to killing Johnson, who he said was having a relationship with the woman who he allegedly kidnapped.
Bowers is the father of the woman’s three children, he told the TV station.
“(Sunday) morning, when I saw them, I just lost it,” Bowers told the TV station.