A group of four elite competition cheerleaders were shot Tuesday morning after one of the girls mistakenly got into the wrong vehicle, thinking it was hers. Two of the athletes suffered injuries; one was taken to hospital in critical condition.
Early Tuesday morning, the cheerleaders were returning from practice, a roughly 360-mile round trip the girls make three times a week. They stopped at an HEB in Elgin, which they used as a designated carpool lot.
Entertainer Heather Roth testified that shortly after midnight, she got out of her friend’s vehicle and opened the door of what she believed to be her vehicle, when she noticed a man in the passenger seat. Roth said she immediately ran back to her friend’s car in a panic.
The man then also got out of the vehicle and approached the cheerleaders.
Roth said he rolled down his window to apologize and explain the confusion to the man. According to Roth, the man reacted by raising his hands, drawing a gun and opening fire on the young women.
An HEB employee confirmed seeing a man “shoot at the vehicle several times.”
Roth was wounded, but her friend and teammate Payton Washington, 18, was shot in the leg and back.
According to Roth, he witnessed Washington vomiting blood. Washington was airlifted to a nearby hospital in critical condition.
The alleged gunman, Pedro Tello Rodríguez Jr., 25, was arrested Tuesday and charged with deadly conduct.
In an interview Wednesday with NBC News, Washington’s father provided an update on his daughter’s condition. He claimed that doctors removed Washington’s spleen; he is now in stable condition and recovering in the ICU. She also noted that her daughter was born with one lung and is as “tough as they come.”
The young woman must undergo another surgery before she can be released.
Washington’s father explained that he was surprised that the suspect responded to the mistake by opening fire on the young women.
“You saw her walk to your door by accident, she’s a girl in a cheerleader outfit,” he said. “This young man has to face the next call, his own memory and reflection of what he has done and what God has for him. It is a sentence in itself that he has to work on.”
KTRK-TV reported that the investigation is still ongoing and additional charges are expected.
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