{"id":392574,"date":"2026-07-30T21:35:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T21:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/392574\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T21:35:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T21:35:09","slug":"man-shows-slight-improvement-following-crowbar-attack-by-repeat-offender","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/392574\/","title":{"rendered":"Man shows slight improvement following crowbar attack by repeat offender"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

HOUSTON – New details are emerging in the recovery of a man critically injured in a random, violent crowbar attack earlier this month<\/a>\u2014and his family is raising questions about why his alleged attacker was free in the first place.<\/p>\n

Nhan Le update <\/p>\n

What they’re saying:<\/p>\n

Nhan Le remains on life support at HCA Houston Healthcare Northwest following the July 17 attack near State Highway 249.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, in a new update, his family says he has begun showing slight signs of movement in his arms and legs.<\/p>\n

“When I hold his hand, his hand pulls. And when I massage him, his leg is straightened,” said his brother, Hieu Huynh.<\/p>\n

Questions about suspect’s prior dismissal <\/p>\n

Dig deeper:<\/p>\n

While holding onto hope, the family maintains that this incident could have been prevented.<\/p>\n

The alleged attacker, 28-year-old Joshua McDaniel, has more than 15 prior charges in Harris County court records. Among them was a charge for injury to an elderly person that was dismissed in February after McDaniel was referred to a mental health treatment facility.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Andy Kahan with Crime Stoppers Houston pointed out that the referral did not guarantee mandatory treatment.<\/p>\n

“Once they dismissed the case, they gave him a ride from Harris County Jail to the Judge Ed Emmett Mental Health Treatment Center,” Kahan said. “It’s voluntary. There’s no commitment orders. They can’t force him to stay… Who knows what happened? Obviously, we know what happened months later because he’s facing life imprisonment for these horrific acts.”<\/p>\n

Huynh voiced similar frustration over the suspect\u2019s release prior to the attack.<\/p>\n

“That’s like a free ride for him after he committed all those crimes,” Huynh said.<\/p>\n

District Attorney\u2019s office issues new statement <\/p>\n

The other side:<\/p>\n

In response to inquiries regarding McDaniel\u2019s history and the February dismissal, the Harris County District Attorney\u2019s Office released the following statement:<\/p>\n

“Prosecuting a case without material witnesses can be exceptionally challenging. Rather than dismissing criminal charges and releasing a defendant with no structured support or judicial intervention, prosecutors sometimes seek to provide other limited resources.”<\/p>\n

\u2014 Harris County District Attorney’s Office <\/p>\n

However, official court documents associated with McDaniel\u2019s dismissal do not list “lack of witnesses” as the official reason, showing only a referral to a mental health facility.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kahan noted that omitting the explicit dismissal reason on court paperwork is something he has never seen in similar cases.<\/p>\n

FOX 26 has requested further clarification from the District Attorney’s Office regarding the discrepancy and is awaiting a response.<\/p>\n

The Source: Harris County Clerk of Courts, Harris County District Attorney, Harris County Sheriff’s Office and family of victim.<\/p>\n

Crime and Public Safety<\/a>Houston<\/a>Top Stories<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON – New details are emerging in the recovery of a man critically injured in a random, violent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":392575,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[1046,56,58,57,223,2053,216,393],"class_list":["post-392574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-crime-publicsafety","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-tx","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392574","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=392574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/392575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}