Pedro Tello Rodriguez Jr. Charged With Deadly Conduct For Shooting Payton Washington and Heather Roth

According to multiple reports, a Texas cheerleaders mistakenly got into the wrong vehicle, resulting in two cheerleaders getting shot, one of whom got taken to the hospital.

On April 18th, four members of the elite competitive cheerleading team in Oak Ridge, was on their way home from practice.

ABC13 reports that the four women used the Elgin H-E-B as a carpool lot to drive from the Round Rock area to Woodlands Elite Cheer in Oak Ridge multiple times per week for practice.

Cheerleader Heather Roth left the car she was driving with her friends when she got there just after midnight and opened the car door in the parking lot that she thought was hers. Roth saw a man in the passenger and immediately went back to her friend’s car after she thought it was a stranger in her car.

After understanding her slip-up, she saw the man moving toward the vehicle and lowered the window to apologize and let him know she thought he had been in her car.

Roth claimed that the man raised his hands, grabbed a gun, and fired.

The H-E-B manager who witnessed the shooting claims that the assailant fired multiple shots at the vehicle before fleeing.

Heather Roth got grazed by one bullet, and her cheerleader friend Payton Washington was hit twice, once in the leg and once in the back. After that, Payton Washington got flown to a nearby hospital, where she was in critical condition.

The shooting was caught on camera by surveillance footage obtained by the authorities from the parking lot.

Since then, the alleged gunman has been apprehended and identified by police as Pedro Tello Rodriguez Jr., age 25. He got charged with deadly conduct on Tuesday, and additional charges may follow.

To help with Payton Washington’s medical expenses, you can donate to her GoFundMe here.

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Quincy Thomas

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