Texas cheerleaders shot after one enters incorrect car

Associated Press

ELGIN, Texas-- A man shot and wounded 2 cheerleaders in a Texas supermarket parking lot after one of them stated she wrongly got into his cars and truck thinking it was her own-- the current in a string of current U.S. shootings obviously stimulated by someone showing up at the incorrect location.

The shooting in Elgin, east of Austin, took place early Tuesday in a car park that acts as a carpool pickup area for members of the Woodlands Elite Cheer Company, group owner Lynne Shearer said.

Heather Roth, one of 4 team members transferring rides in the lot after practice, stated she left her friend's cars and truck and into a cars and truck 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 good friend's vehicle, but the man got out of his automobile and approached. She said she tried to say sorry through her pal's automobile window, however the man tossed up his hands, pulled out a weapon 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.

" Payton unlocks, and she starts tossing up blood," Roth said.

Washington was flown to a health center in vital condition. Doctors needed to get rid of part of Washington's spleen, KTRK-TV reported.

Someone who witnessed the shooting said the shooter ran away the scene after the attack, authorities said.

Police arrested a suspect, 25-year-old Pedro Tello Rodriguez Jr., who is charged with taking part in lethal conduct, a third-degree felony. Online court records do not note an attorney for him.Shearer said Washington, a high school senior from Round Rock, north of Austin, is one of her group's stars and was born with only one lung.

" She's truly a huge face in the all-star cheerleading world," Shearer said. "She's a mentor and role model to many kids in this industry. She's an amazing professional athlete, incredible kid, so everyone knows her and everybody's praying for her."

Washington has devoted to competing for Baylor University's acrobatics and tumbling group next year, and her and her Woodlands colleagues were set to compete at the The Cheerleading Worlds in Orlando, Florida, this weekend. Shearer said the team will now be "contending for her."

The attack comes days after two prominent shootings that happened after victims went to incorrect addresses. In one case, a Black teenager was shot and wounded after going to the incorrect Kansas City, Missouri, house to get his younger brothers. In the other, a lady trying to find a good friend's house in upstate New York was shot and killed after the automobile she was riding in erroneously went to the wrong address.