After less than three months of investigating, the Houston police think they’ve finally got their man. Investigators have charged 23-year-old Kermit Ladell Johnson with murder for allegedly killing man in a parking lot in March.
Police accuse Johnson of shooting 39-year-old Steven Torres several times in the upper body early in the morning on March 10 outside an apartment building on the 4200 block of Wilmington. Residents heard gunshots in the parking lot, police say, and then noticed that Torres’s auto had crashed into a parked car. Torres’ body was lying on the ground.
Johnson was charged on Friday.
While police are winding up the Johnson case, they announced today the start of another homicide investigation that may have occurred Friday evening.
According to police: Johnie Mackey, 72, was shot to death in a parking
lot on the 7700 block of Jester. Mackey and several other men where
there hanging out and drinking beer. At one point, Mackey began picking
up the trash when two African-American men carrying guns walked up and
tried to rob the group. One of the men escaped when gunfire exploded.
Mackey was shot several times and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Francisco Garcia was shot in the foot and was later released from St.
Joseph Hospital.
Police describe the suspects only as two African-Americans in their early 20s.
Houston
police are also looking into what appears to be a deadly car-jacking
early Saturday morning. The victim, an unidentified 47-year-old
Hispanic man, was shot in the chest, police say. Officers say they
believe the victim was inside his car on the 7000 block of Bellfort
just after 2 a.m. when several armed robbers walked up to him. A fight
broke out and the victim was shot. The robbers then fled on foot.
Anyone with information concerning these investigations is urged to call Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS
This article appears in May 28 – Jun 3, 2009.