College students dodge nearly a dozen bullets when looking for parking outside party, deputies say

SPRING, Texas (KTRK) — A 19-year-old was driving two others to a house party and searching for parking nearby when their car was shot at nearly a dozen times, according to deputies.

According to Harris County Pct. 4 Constable’s Office, they received multiple disturbance calls about a party on Sugar Valley Drive on July 28. When they were there, a driver flagged them down, saying his car had been shot at.

Tavares White, the driver, said he heard a popping noise and, at first, thought it was his tire until he realized it was gunfire. White told ABC13 he saw a man standing under a light pole and couldn’t get a good look at his face.

“I can’t define what he looked like, but he had a hat on, shorts, and pants, and I (saw) him shooting at the vehicle,” White said. “He had a gun, pointing at the car.”

He and his family members believe a nearby homeowner had grown tired of the constant parties and cars parked outside his home, so shot at his car.

“This isn’t just, ‘I am going to shoot and scare,'” his father, Carlton White Jr., said. “It’s, ‘I want to kill these guys and make them come to his neighborhood again and take a breath again.'”

One neighbor said she wasn’t surprised, sharing her own experience with the homeowner. ABC13 is not sharing his name because he is not facing any charges.

“I was young – probably 14, and I was with my cousin when he pulled a gun on us just because we were popping fireworks,” she said.

Community Activists Quanell X and Dr. Candice Matthews stood with family members in this most recent incident, calling out the Harris County District Attorney’s Office for not filing charges and criticizing Pct. 4 for its investigation.

“You want us to believe that shell casings are on the ground in front of the house, a young man saying he is the one who shot at me, but you don’t test his hands for gun residue?” Quanell said.

ABC13 reached out to Constable Mark Herman, who said his deputies did interview the homeowner, claiming he showed them a gun he had and the caliber didn’t match the shell casings outside.

According to Herman, the young men told deputies they could not say whether the man they saw was holding a gun, which is a conflicting statement from what he told us.

ABC13 reached out to the DA’s office to find out why the charges were declined. According to a spokesperson, it was because the complainant couldn’t make a positive ID of the shooter. Deputies told the DA’s office that the homeowner said he was sleeping at the time and has not used his gun in years.

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