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Elgin, Texas: A man shot and wounded two cheerleaders in a Texas supermarket parking lot after one of them said she mistakenly got into his car thinking it was her own — the latest in a string of recent US shootings apparently sparked by someone showing up at the wrong place.
Texas cheerleader Payton Washington was shot in a carpark outside Austin, Texas.Credit: Go Fund Me
The shooting in Elgin, east of Austin, happened early Tuesday (US time) in a parking lot that serves as a carpool pickup spot for members of the Woodlands Elite Cheer Company, team owner Lynne Shearer said.
Heather Roth, one of four team members transferring rides in the lot after practice, said she got out of her friend’s car and into a car she thought was hers, but there was a stranger in the passenger seat, KTRK-TV reported. She said she panicked and got back into her friend’s car, but the man got out of his vehicle and approached. She said she tried to apologise through her friend’s car window, but the man threw up his hands, pulled out a gun and opened fire.
Roth was grazed by a bullet and was treated at the scene, police said. Her teammate Payton Washington, 18, was shot in the leg and back.
Pedro Tello Rodriguez jr has been charged in connection with the shooting of two cheerleaders in a grocery store parking lot.Credit: Elgin Police Department
“Payton opens the door, and she starts throwing up blood,” Roth said.
Washington was flown to a hospital in critical condition. Doctors had to remove part of Washington’s spleen, KTRK-TV reported.
Someone who witnessed the shooting said the shooter fled the scene after the attack, police said.
Police arrested a suspect, 25-year-old Pedro Tello Rodriguez jr, who is charged with engaging in deadly conduct, a third-degree felony. Online court records do not list an attorney for him.
Shearer said Washington, a high school senior from Round Rock, north of Austin, is one of her team’s stars and was born with only one lung.
“She’s really a huge face in the all-star cheerleading world,” Shearer said. “She’s a mentor and role model to so many kids in this industry. She’s an amazing athlete, amazing kid, so everybody knows her and everybody’s praying for her.”
Washington has committed to competing for Baylor University’s acrobatics and tumbling team next year, and her and her Woodlands teammates were set to compete at the The Cheerleading Worlds in Orlando, Florida, this weekend. Shearer said the team will now be “competing for her”.
The attack comes days after two high-profile shootings that occurred after victims went to mistaken addresses.
In one case, Ralph Yarl was shot and wounded after going to the wrong Kansas City, Missouri, home to pick up his younger brothers. Andrew Lester, 84, allegedly, shot the black teen in the head and arm on his doorstep. Lester pleaded not guilty in his first court appearance on Wednesday.
Payton Washington was shot after getting into the wrong car in an Austin-area grocery store parking lot.Credit: @we_payton
In the other, Kaylin Gillis, 20, was travelling through the rural town of Hebron with three other people on Saturday night when the group turned onto a property that was not the friend’s house they were looking for, authorities said. They were met with gunfire in the driveway. One round hit Gillis, killing her.
AP
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