Armed robbery victim hurt during shootout with robber in a Walmart parking lot, Houston police say

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- A man being held up at gunpoint in a Walmart Supercenter parking lot pulled out his gun and exchanged fire with the suspect who was behind the wheel of an SUV, police said on Monday night.

The victim was hit at least three times and hospitalized after the shooting just before 9 p.m. on Yale Street near Interstate 10 in the Washington Corridor area. His condition was not immediately disclosed.

Police added that the suspect was in a white vehicle and took off in an unknown direction. Officers aren't sure if that person was also hit.

A Walmart employee who spoke with Eyewitness News said the shots were heard from inside and startled people just visiting the store on a routine Monday night.

"I heard bangs. It was so loud. (Sounds) ricocheted through the walls. I seen people running, screaming, and crying," the employee told ABC13. "It was all concentrated in one spot."

Police weren't able to give a suspect description. An investigation is ongoing.

ABC13's Neighborhood Safety Tracker counted 52 robberies over the last 12 months in the Memorial Park-West End-Ashbury-Cottage Grove area where the armed holdup unfolded. Forty-nine robberies were counted in 2022, 55 in 2021, 33 in 2020, and 40 in 2019.

Assaults in the same area are almost tenfold, with 482 counted in the last 12 months.

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