Posted on 01/03/2024 10:08:57 PM PST by Spktyr
Warning: Excerpted:
Subhead: "About a year after the shooting, a Harris County grand jury announced it would not be filing charges against the man who shot and killed a robber."
HARRIS COUNTY, Texas — A grand jury declined to file charges against the man who shot and killed a robber at a southwest Houston taqueria last year.
The shooting happened on Jan. 5, 2023, at the El Ranchito taqueria on South Gessner Road.
Eric Eugene Washington, 30, was shot and killed as he walked through the restaurant robbing people, according to police.
In the wake of the shooting, there were calls for the shooter to be charged. Some called him a "vigilante." Others called the man who shot and killed the robber a hero.
Restaurant owner Pedro Lopez agreed with the grand jury's decision. He also said the customer who fired the shots hasn't returned in the year since the shooting. The 46-year-old shooter was never identified.
What happened:
It happened just before 11:30 p.m. Thursday at the restaurant on S. Gessner near Bellaire Boulevard.
Houston police said an armed, masked man entered the restaurant and demanded money and wallets from customers. However, as he was leaving, one of the customers shot him.
The incident was caught on surveillance video.
According to police, at the time, the man who shot and killed the robber collected the stolen money and returned it to the other patrons. They said the rest of the people in the restaurant left the scene before police arrived.
No one else in the restaurant was injured. Investigators said the robber ended up not having a real gun.
(Excerpt) Read more at khou.com ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usRisq9GKg0
https://www.khou.com/article/news/crime/grand-jury-no-charges-taqueria-shooter/285-6b117ced-e3c1-4ba9-a023-d6b371b5bb5e
I know someone posted the Fox News article earlier, this is one by a local station with more links and videos.
Several people here were assuring me he was going to prison lol.
You should be able to shoot anyone who pulls a gun and threatens to kill you or anyone else.
I remember that. Good for the citizen.
OK. I'm confused. They claim they never ID'd the guy but are now filing charges against him?
If they don't know who he is, how are they filing charges?
Doesn't filing charges imply they know and caught him?
Yes, and that is known as *self-defense*, NOT *vigilantism*.
Why did this even go into the court system?
They are NOT filing charges against him.
One assumes that if they were, it would be as a "John Doe".
i remember the video and was saying the same thing
prison time would have been a travesty
glad it had a happy ending
Texas law may be different than other states
if he had been in a blue state things may have ended differently
all good points
the police may have refused to investigate
perhaps the da tried to get a charge to force them
News reader said the video “was difficult to watch.” Not for me. The robber got what he asked for.
Right, they did not file charges, but how the heck did it even make it to the grand jury then?
THEY had to decide not to file charges against someone they didn’t even know who it was?
How can anyone file charges against someone they don’t even know who to charge?
Great, except it cost him everything he owned to fight it, and he won’t get it back. This should have never even went past the DA kicking it out based on common sense.
The local DA who had jurisdiction over the area where the death occurred probably bent to local blacks’ demands to charge the shooter, but took the easy way out. He decided to pawn off the decision to the GJ instead of charging the shooter himself.
That seems the most likely scenario.
The above sentence could mean that the police don't know, or it could just mean that they aren't releasing that info to the public in order to protect the guy from retaliation.
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