Law & Crime<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u201cDefendant stated that he thought his daughter was in the vehicle which was driven by (Butler) and that as the vehicle drove past them, his wife got out and began chasing it on foot,\u201d the complaint stated.<\/p>\n
Surveillance video shows Butler driving his gray Honda Pilot into the gas station lot and passing the Matas\u2019 black GMC Acadia at the pump, when Mata\u2019s wife suddenly hopped out and ran after the vehicle, reaching for the rear passenger door.<\/p>\n
Butler \u2014 seemingly unaware of what was happening \u2014 then accelerated out of the parking lot and onto an access road of the Sam Houston Parkway.<\/p>\n
Mata, 39, is seen aiming a pistol at a fleeing SUV outside a Shell gas station in Houston and unloading gunfire, killing 25-year-old Desmond Butler around 1 a.m. on Dec. 25. Houston Police Department<\/p>\n
The footage cuts back to the GMC, where Mata is seen walking toward the fleeing Honda while armed with a pistol.<\/p>\n
Mata then allegedly opened fire on the Honda Pilot, striking Butler, who then lost control of the vehicle and crashed into a pole.<\/p>\n
Mata and his wife then drove to the crash site and pulled open Butler\u2019s passenger door after realizing he was not their daughter\u2019s boyfriend, according to the complaint.<\/p>\n
\u201c(The defendant). looked inside the vehicle and said something to the effect of, \u2018Oh, we were looking for our kidnapped daughter, I\u2019m sorry, we will call 911,\u2019 and then drove away,\u201d the complaint stated.<\/p>\n
Desmond Butler moved to Houston from Georgia in 2023 after getting a job with Amazon. Family Handout<\/p>\n
Butler lost control of his Honda Pilot after being shot and crashed into a pole. KHOU 11<\/p>\n
By the time first responders arrived, the couple had left the scene, and Butler was rushed to a local hospital, where he later died from his injuries.<\/p>\n
Mata and his wife showed up at police headquarters with a lawyer on Monday and claimed the deadly shooting stemmed from a kidnapping misunderstanding.<\/p>\n
Mata told investigators he fired two shots at the vehicle in an attempt to stop it, then watched it crash before he left the scene without calling for help, according to the complaint.<\/p>\n
The 39-year-old has been charged with murder and turned himself in on Wednesday. Houston Police Department<\/p>\n
Mata is charged with murder and turned himself in on Wednesday. He posted a $50,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in court on Feb. 25, Law & Crime reported.<\/p>\n
Butler\u2019s sister, Destiny, told KHOU 11<\/a> that their family, which lives in Georgia, is \u201cdevastated\u201d by his death.<\/p>\nShe said her brother moved to Houston in 2023 to work at Amazon, later becoming a manager, and had no plans that Christmas Day.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just want answers on why him? My brother was a light of joy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Texas father allegedly gunned down an innocent Amazon manager who was spending Christmas away from his family…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125615,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[294,18483,54255,3346,27,29,28,734],"class_list":["post-125614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-crime","tag-kidnappings","tag-mistaken-identity","tag-shootings","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}