What began as a suspected road rage incident in a Houston neighborhood spiraled into a deadly shooting rampage that stretched across 24 miles of Texas highways, leaving four people dead, including the gunman, police said.
The violence unfolded in three separate locations, beginning around 1 p.m. Wednesday when a woman was shot multiple times inside her vehicle on Dairy Ashford Road near U.S. 90 in Sugar Land. Police said she was rushed to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
"We have a very tragic incident today, and it's got several moving parts," Houston Police Lt. Larry Crowson said at a news conference.
The shooting was initially thought to have been spurred by road rage, but the department said in a statement that the incident was “not a random act of road rage violence.”
Investigators with the the Sugar Land Police Department later confirmed the victim had been in a relationship with the gunman, KPRC reported.
Roughly 45 minutes after the first shooting, the suspect drove to a mechanic shop on Fondren Road in southwest Houston, where police said he got into an argument with the owner and opened fire again, killing two men, Lt. Crowson said.
“There was a report that a male in a silver Ford Escape, which matched the description of the vehicle in the Sugar Land shooting, had been involved in an altercation with a mechanic there,” Crowson said.
As the suspect fled the scene, he shot the 51-year-old mechanic, killing him.
Another man, who came out of a nearby warehouse recording the incident on a cellphone, was also fatally shot, police said, pointing to surveillance footage that reportedly captured the exchange.
“The suspect then fired several shots, killing that witness,” Crowson added.
The mechanic who was fatally shot was known for helping anyone who came into his shop, KPRC reported.
About 15 minutes after that, police responded to a third shooting three miles away on Creekbend Drive near South Gessner Road.
There, officers found the 42-year-old suspect inside the vehicle, dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, Crawson said.
Police closed multiple roadways as investigators processed the sprawling crime scenes, working to determine what led to the deadly chain of events.
The identities of the three victims and the suspect have not yet been released.
