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(CNN) Two teenage cheerleaders were shot in a supermarket parking lot near the Texas capital after they mistook a suspect’s car for theirs. fire.
Authorities arrested Pedro Tello Rodriguez Jr., 25. He was taken into custody early Tuesday morning, the Elgin Police Department said in a news release later that morning.
According to probable cause documents, Tello has been charged with manslaughter with a firearm, which is a third-degree felony. He is bound by a $500,000 bond. It was not immediately clear if he had a lawyer.
Police rushed to the parking lot of the HEB supermarket shortly after midnight on Tuesday and found two people inside the car that had been hit by bullets, police said, citing preliminary reports. One seriously injured was taken by helicopter to the hospital in critical condition, while the other was treated at the scene.
The latter girl got out of her friend’s car and opened the door of what she thought was hers to find a man sitting in the passenger seat, KTRK reported.
Heather Ross said she was about to apologize to the man when he stepped out of the passenger door.
“He just put his hand up, pulled out a gun, and started shooting at all of us,” Ross said, holding back tears.
Lynne Shearer, managing partner of the Woodlands Elite Cheer Company, told CNN that Roth and fellow cheerleader Payton Washington drove away quickly.
“As soon as they saw the gun, they said let’s go, drove off, and went down the road for about two miles,” Shearer told CNN. “And that’s when they realized Peyton was seriously injured and stopped the car after realizing the man wasn’t following them because Peyton was vomiting blood at that point. So , they called 911.”
Washington was shot twice and seriously injured, according to a GoFundMe led by Washington’s cheerleading team, the Woodlands Elite Generals. According to the team, Washington is stable and recovering in the ICU.
Shearer said Roth was shot but was treated and released at the scene.
“I’m doing fine today,” said Washington after suffering a rupture of her removed spleen, with damage to her pancreas and diaphragm.
“Her stomach hasn’t closed yet and she’s been on heavy antibiotics for at least 48 hours to fight off the infection,” she said. Solve the problem and close her.”
In a separate interview with CNN, Shearer said Washington should make a full recovery and has been FaceTiming with a friend.
Roth and Washington hail from the Austin and Round Rock areas and used to carpool three times a week to a cheerleading gym in Oak Ridge North, a suburb of Houston.
It’s about a 300-mile round trip commute, which Washington state has been doing for eight years, Shearer said.
Ross is in college and the other three girls in the car, including Washington, are in high school.
Washington, who was on the Baylor University aerobatics and tumbling team, was born with only one lung and “overcame many obstacles to reach the pinnacle of the sport,” Shearer said.
“Peyton is a strong young woman. If you know her, you know that about her,” Baylor acrobat head and tumbling coach Felecia Malkey told CNN. I have no doubt that we will get through it.”
Crime scene tape is seen around a tree in the parking lot of HEB, April 19, 2023, in Elgin, Texas, where two teenagers were injured in a shooting a week ago.
After visiting Ross on Tuesday, Malkey said all things considered, she looks great and is making good progress.
Mulkey described Ross as “a great athlete, but a better person.”
“We know that emotional wounds leave scars too,” she said. I hope she recovers.”
Shearer said her team is still busy preparing for the World Championships in Orlando this weekend.
Tuesday’s shooting was another case this week, when a 16-year-old was hit in the head for ringing the wrong doorbell in Kansas City, and a 20-year-old was shot dead after going to the wrong place. The owner of the house she inadvertently turned into a driveway.
The United States is the only country with more civilian guns than people, with about 120 guns per 100 Americans, according to the Small Arms Survey. Elgin is a city of about 10,000 located about a 30-minute drive east of Austin.
Pedro Tero Rodriguez Jr. was arrested early Tuesday morning after two Texas cheerleaders were shot after they claimed they accidentally got into another car in a parking lot.
A supermarket manager witnessed the incident, according to a probable cause affidavit, and police have surveillance footage from the parking lot showing the license plate of the suspect’s car, police said.
“Detective Elgin contacted Pedro Tello at the residence, who was still wearing the clothing Elgin observed on surveillance footage,” the affidavit states.
Four athletes from Woodland Elite Cheer were “involved in a horrific incident” on their way home from practice Monday night, the cheerleading and tumbling company said in a Facebook post.
“We seek your prayers,” it said.
CNN’s Rosa Flores, Ashley Killough and Ed Lavandera contributed to this report.
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