A Houston man was attacked and shot, possibly with a pellet gun, while taking out his trash early this morning, police said.
The man was outside around 2 a.m. near the intersection of Driscoll and Sul Ross in the Montrose area when he said two cars pulled, four men emerged and tried to rob him.
When the victim resisted, he reported being pistol-whipped and his shirt was torn off as he fled. As he neared his front door, police said he was shot three times in the back.
The victim, whose name was not released, was in stable condition at Ben Taub General Hospital.
Houston police did not immediately have descriptions of the cars of the attackers.
Chronicle news partner KHOU-TV provided this report.
This is a story in today's Houston Chronicle. It describes events that more or less took place early this morning. They got a few facts incorrect, but conveyed the overall story. Here is what actually happened.
This was my call. It was sent to me as a burglary of a motor vehicle. I arrived to find the victim bleeding from his face and talking to a very drunk woman. Not what I usually find at burglary of motor vehicle calls. I had the dispatcher send an ambulance my way and then asked the victim what happened. He stated that after he put his trash in the trash can, 4 black males (suspects) approached him. They all had guns. The suspects threw him on the ground and demanded money. They threatened to shoot him in the head. He got up and gave them his wallet containing an ATM card, but no cash. The victim made the mistake of looking at the suspects and got hit in the face twice with a pistol. The suspects then got into an argument. It seems one of them wanted to kidnap the victim and force him to get them money from an ATM machine. Other suspects disagreed, and they argued.
At this point, the victim was left with only one suspect who was holding his shirt. The victim decided to make a break for it. He shrugged out of his shirt and started running. The suspect then shot him three times in the back with a pellet gun. The victim kept running and the suspects did not chase. The victim retuned to his apartment complex and got the attention of his drunk neighbor who called the police. This is the description of the suspects given by the victim, 4 black males, all with pistols, in a light or dark small sedan. The description did not really narrow things down very much. HFD then transported the victim to Park Plaza Hospital so that the pellets could be removed from his back.
After shootings, or robberies, or car jackings, or other violent crimes, we usually send the dispatcher a description of the suspects so that she can send that information out to the other units citywide. I did not have very much information to send, but I did it anyway. It read: Be on the look out for 4 black males, in either a light or dark small sedan, armed with guns, took the victim's wallet and shot him three times with a pellet gun. About three minutes after sending the message, I was called over the radio by a unit from another part of town. I called his cell phone, he happened to be the brother of a good friend. He had a small stolen sedan run from him and crash. When it crashed, 4 black males jumped out and ran. They found pellet guns inside the sedan along with my victim's credit card. With the help of a police dog, they arrested the suspects, who were juveniles. They were charged with a variety of felonies including auto theft, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, aggravated robbery, and evading arrest in a vehicle.
A positive ending to a horrible experience for the victim, one that the Chronicle missed.
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