Surveillance video from a Mexican restaurant in Houston shows a robber taking money from customers while waving a gun around the place. In the end, an armed customer shoots and kills the robber while other customers ducked for cover.
The video from Ranchito Taqueria late Thursday night in Southwest Houston has more than 10 million views on the KHOU Twitter page. Here’s the 30-second clip, which ends as a patron pulls his handgun and aims it at the robber.
The video begins with someone entering the restaurant holding a gun in the air and then pointing it in various directions. The robber goes from one table to another, grabbing money from each. A couple of customers are seen lying on the floor, partially underneath a table.
The robber appears to make one final sweep of the place before seemingly heading toward the front door. That’s when an unidentified man pulls a gun and aims it at the back of the robber.
Photo by ED JONES/AFP via Getty Images
The Houston Police Department said the suspect was “an unknown black male in all black clothing, a black ski mask, and black gloves.” He was shot multiple times, the police said, and was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics.
“Witnesses told officers the suspect entered the restaurant and pointed a pistol at patrons as he demanded their money. As the suspect collected money from patrons, one of the patrons, described as a white or Hispanic male, produced a gun of his own and shot the suspect multiple times,” the police department stated. “The shooter collected the stolen money from the suspect and returned the money to other patrons. He and other patrons (victims) then fled the scene.”
Police are looking for the unidentified shooter for questioning. HPD said the man is “not charged at this time.”
There were no other injuries in the restaurant, and police say the deceased man didn’t have a real gun.
“The robbery suspect he came into the store and was wearing masks and gloves,” HPD Lt. Wilkens said. “He had a plastic pistol possibly an aero soft or possibly a little BB pistol.”
Nathan Beedle with the Harris County District Attorney’s Office said the shooting death could be justified.
“I can point you exactly where it is in the law, 9.31 and 9.32 of the penal code,” Beedle said on KHOU, the local CBS affiliate. “Whether someone uses deadly force in the situation, that is presumed to be correct under Texas law.”
