It’s a simple mistake that ordinary people make all the time. Accidentally getting into the wrong car has 18-year-old high school cheerleader Payton Washington fighting for her life. A second female shooting victim, Heather Roth, has been treated and released from the hospital. Police in Elgin, Texas arrested and charged Pedro Tello Rodriguez Jr. at the scene of the shooting, a grocery store parking lot.
Near deadly mistake
It was a simple mistake but 25-year-old Tello Rodriguez Jr. decided to shoot first and ask questions later. That was entirely the wrong choice, which he should now have a long time to think about behind bars. He shot two young championship cheerleaders, critically injuring one of them. The shooting happened Tuesday, April 18, just after midnight in the parking lot of the local H-E-B supermarket.
This makes “the third headline-making incident in less than a week in which someone was shot while approaching a person they apparently did not know,” Washington Post observes.
Police got calls of gunshots after midnight, the press release notes. After sizing up the situation and getting the injured off to the hospital, they arrested and charged Rodriguez with “deadly conduct.” That’s a third-degree felony. They call what happened an “altercation,” where “multiple shots were fired into a vehicle.”
Instead of competing at Cheerleading Worlds, Payton Washington is in the ICU—because a gunman shot her and her friend for accidentally getting into the wrong car.
Payton's dad said she's as tough as they come, and I believe it. Keep fighting, Payton.https://t.co/5QHBBZhHde
— Gabrielle Giffords (@GabbyGiffords) April 19, 2023
It started with a harmless mistake. One of the occupants was “identified by her coach as Payton Washington, an 18-year-old high school senior and cheerleader for the Round Rock Independent School District, near Austin.” The girl “sustained serious injuries” when “shot in the back and a leg.” They took her by helicopter to the hospital in critical condition. Updates note that she’s been upgraded to “stable in the ICU.” They add she “will have a long road to recovery.” Ms. Washington had big plans to attend “Baylor University to compete on its acrobatic and tumbling team.” That will be on hold now because of “damage to multiple organs.” She “had to have her spleen removed because of the shooting.”
Heather Roth “suffered a graze wound on one of her legs and was released from the scene of the shooting.” Ms. Roth relates that “she and three other cheerleaders with Woodlands Elite Cheer Co. had just completed their Monday night practice when they arrived at the H-E-B parking lot, which their carpool used.” She’s the one who made the near fatal mistake.
Roth “got into a car she thought was a friend’s.” She instantly knew something was wrong because “a man was in the passenger seat.” She quickly got back out.
Tried to apologize
As Ms. Roth got into the proper car, “she saw Rodriguez approach and rolled down her window to apologize.” For the third time this week, a simple mistake triggered gunfire. First, Ralph Yarl rang the wrong doorbell in Kansas City, Missouri.
Then, a group of girls including Kaylin Gillis turned around in the wrong upstate New York driveway. Now this. “He pulled out a gun, and then he just started shooting at all of us,” Roth described. “Payton opens the door, and she starts throwing up blood.”
Two others on the Elite Cheer squad, Keyona and Genesis, “were also involved but not injured.” It was normal for the cheerleaders to carpool to practice together “for practice three times a week from the Austin area to the Woodlands Elite Cheer.” That’s “a competitive cheerleading company.”
Pedro Tello Rodriguez Jr., 25, is the deranged shooter. https://t.co/OEM0j9Xgz9 pic.twitter.com/YOLSHouanx
— Et Videbo Justitiam (Andy)🇺🇸 (@DiazAndytwelve1) April 19, 2023
Ms. Roth realized her mistake instantly and was “initially panicked at thinking that a stranger was in her friend’s car.” She quickly realized she had the wrong car but apparently wasn’t quick enough with the explanation.
Roth was rattled at first but knew she made a mistake and didn’t consider it a major one. When she regained her composure in what she thought was the safety of the proper car and tried to apologize, it was already too late.
“When she started to apologize, the man threw up his hands, pulled out a gun and began to shoot.” The girls took off in the car while “he shot his gun, like five times or so into the car.” Police note that “additional or enhanced charges against Rodriguez are likely.“
