Neighbors help protect each other during shooting rampage

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Families who heard gunshots Monday morning in the West University area are grateful they were able to warn each other.

It may be more common these days not to know your neighbors, but when the shooter started firing around 6:30 am Monday, Gus Laugier received phone calls from his neighbors on Law Street.

"She actually went to the window and said, 'Gus, I can see a man behind a tree with a gun in his hands," Laugier said, "He's not shooting. Oh, he is shooting now!"

Laugier happened to be running late that morning. He said he usually goes for an early morning walk before 6:30.

As the shots continued, another neighbor, Barbara Woods-Spofford, called him.

"She said, 'Let's call all the other residents,' Laugier said. "So we divided the responsibilities. I did two and she did two."

Laugier said he took cover in the kitchen, away from windows, for hours.

"We have realized we really have to stick together and help each other out," Laugier said.

Helping each other out came in a different form Tuesday afternoon. A teenager from Spring showed up on Law Street to give out pizza to neighbors for free.

"It bothers me, you know, every single time there's like a shooting on the news, whether it's like Chicago or something like that," the 18-year-old Josue Delgado said. "But, then I start thinking like, 'Oh, I can't do anything about that, I'm like all the way over here, so when it happened in Houston, I was like, well, you can do something about it now. Come on, do it."

The simple act of kindness was meaningful to neighbors.

"It touches my heart really deeply that he, on his own steam, came here and set up this pizza, right here where it happened. Just a few yards away," Barbara Woods-Spofford said.

Laugier urges other Houstonians to get to know their neighbors.

"Because you never can tell when you're gonna need each other," Laugier said.