Fight over cold chicken at Channelview BBQ benefit ends in shooting

CHANNELVIEW, TX (KTRK) -- Two women say they were nearly killed over a meal they served during a benefit in Channelview.

Harris County deputies say the the case is strange, and they are on it.

"She said it's true, it's true and I said no it's not, no it's not. My brother is not gone. She was like yes, he's gone," said April Bautista.

She received the phone call last Thursday. Bautista just couldn't accept the bad news. Her brother, David Yanez Jr., had died.

"My brother didn't have life insurance. Brother's there already at the funeral home but we can't do nothing yet because we don't have the funds," she said.

So the family decided to sell barbecue plates to raise the money. They set up shop at their Woodforest Boulevard home in Channelview. Their next door neighbor was one of their first customers. But they say he wasn't pleased with the chicken.

"He said the food was too cold and he just started getting a real bad attitude about it so we were like OK, OK, if you don't want it, we will give your money back to you. So that's what we did," said Bautista.

The family says the next day the neighbor came back, with a beef. He claimed someone had thrown the chicken in his yard.

"My oldest son told him hey you need to back off and leave us alone. He screamed at him and he just decided, let me be the man. He then punches my son in the face," Bautista explained.

"He went and hit him and that's when he started hitting all of us," said William Yanez.

The benefit turned into a big brawl. After some heated blows, busted lips and bloodied noses, it was over -- so they thought.

"We started walking away and something told me to turn around. When I turned around he had gone inside the house and then comes back out and he had a gun," said Bautista.

"At first he shot up in the air and then that's when he started shooting at us," added Yanez.

"He hit me first and then my mother," said Bautista.

She was shot in the foot. Her mom was shot twice in the leg -- all over a piece of chicken.

"It's ridiculous. It's not worth it over a piece of chicken," added Bautista.

"Over a piece of chicken, yeah he's a coward. That's why you got hands. You've got to use a gun, only cowards do that," said Yanez.

Harris County detectives were at the house Tuesday. Investigators say they have an open warrant out for the neighbor who's still on the run.