The shooting in Elgin,east of Austin,happened early on Tuesday (US time) in a car park that serves as a carpool pick-up spot for members of the Woodlands Elite Cheer Company,team owner Lynne Shearer said.
Texas cheerleader Payton Washington was shot in a car park outside Austin,Texas.Go Fund Me
Heather Roth,one of four team members in the car park 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.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.
A witness to the shooting said the shooter fled the scene after the attack,police said.
Police arrested a suspect,25-year-old Pedro Tello Rodriguez jnr,who was charged with engaging in deadly conduct,a third-degree felony. Online court records do not list a lawyer 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 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, in Kansas City,Missouri,to pick up his younger brothers. Andrew Lester,84,allegedly shot the black teen in the head and arm on his doorstep. in his first court appearance on Wednesday.
Payton Washington was shot after getting into the wrong car in a car park.@we_payton
In another incident,Kaylin Gillis,20,was travelling through the rural town of Hebron,New York,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. in the driveway. One round hit Gillis,killing her.
AP
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