It’s said that at 3 a.m.
there are just a few basic types of people on the road: those leaving a bar,
those who are up to no good, and the cops who are trying to catch them both.
That seemed to be the situation early yesterday morning when a case of road rage turned
deadly.
Alfredo Vasquez and a group of his friend were driving home
from the El Chaparral Club near the intersection of 290 and 610 in a black Ford
F-150 when suddenly the driver of a white Ford F-150 was overcome by road rage,
Harris County Sheriff’s deputies say. The two trucks were driving north on the
Eastex Freeway from the 610 when the white pickup exited at Aldine
Mail Route. The driver, a Hispanic man between 25
and 30 years old, then shot a bullet into Vasquez’s truck, hitting Vasquez in
the upper body, deputies say.
Vasquez’s friends drove him to Memorial Hermann Northeast in
Humble, where Vasquez was pronounced dead. The shooter’s vehicle is described
as an extended-cab pickup, possibly with tinted windows, louvers on the rear
windows and large chrome wheels.
It may not seem that tow-truck drivers who help motorists
fix a flat tire or jump-start their car on the shoulder of the highway have one
of the more dangerous jobs, but a routine day at the office can quickly turn
deadly.
Isidoro Ramirez, 27, a Safe Clear wrecker driver, was working
on a disabled white Chevy pickup on the right shoulder in the eastbound lanes at 14500 U.S. Highway 290 on Sunday afternoon when the driver of a black Ford
truck crashed into the white truck. Ramirez was standing between his wrecker
and the white pickup and was killed on impact, Houston
police say.
Police arrested the driver of the black truck, Scott
Huebner, 27, and charged him with criminally negligent homicide. Police say
they believe Huebner was high on an illegal drug when he crashed.
The body count in Harris
County continued to increase over
the Fourth of July weekend. Sheriff’s deputies were called out to 8702
Shoal Creek Drive in northwest Harris
County at about 12:30 a.m. Saturday and found two Hispanic men
had been shot to death. The shooter had fled by the time the cops arrived.
Deputies say that Ramon Gomez Rojas, 34, died shortly after
being taken to Cy-Fair Hospital.
The other victim was treated for gunshot wounds in the arm and leg and is in
stable condition. Detectives are continuing to investigate.
Harris County
deputies are also investigating a fatal shooting at the Carriage Place
Apartments at 505 Wells Fargo near
Spring. On Friday night deputies talked to the roommate of Marcus Washington,
35, who told investigators that he walked into their apartment and found Washington
shot to death on the floor, according to the sheriff’s office. The home
appeared to have been ransacked. Washington’s
roommate told detectives that he had last seen Washington
alive 11 hours earlier that morning.
View Bayou Body Count in a larger map
If you have any information regarding these investigations
please call Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS.
This article appears in Jul 2-8, 2009.