Suspected murderer on the run tampered with ankle monitor, police say
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- A man given bond for murder is now charged with another murder and officials can't find him.
Gerald Washington is on the run after tampering with his GPS monitoring device, according to officials.
It goes back to May 2018. Washington was granted deferred adjudication, which is similar to probation, for two counts of burglary to a building.
His conditions were amended several times after he allegedly violated them.
Then, in October 2018, he was charged with murder and two aggravated assaults.
Court records state in October 2017, he got into a car and shot three women, killing one of them.
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One of the victims told ABC13 she barely knew him, and doesn't know why he started shooting.
She said she was shot between as many as seven times. Washington was charged in October 2018 for those crimes.
"When you think about it, here's someone who's on probation, deferred adjudication, just another form of probation, one of the primary rules and conditions of deferred adjudication and probation is not to violate any laws of society," explained Andy Kahan with Crime Stoppers of Houston. "Being arrested for not one, not two, but three violent offenses generally means you violated those conditions of your probation."
Despite that, a judge later gave Washington a $200,000 bond, which he made, and was required to wear a GPS monitoring device. Even then, there were violations along the way.
For example, court records show he tested positive just two weeks on "January 30, 2020 for amphetamines & methamphetamines."
While out on bond, police said he committed another murder this month. Then, according to officials, he tampered with his GPS ankle monitor and is currently a fugitive at-large.
Kahan said there should have been an alert out immediately.
"The minute that person's whereabouts are unknown, and we discover that he removed the ankle monitor, I would immediately get an alert out to law enforcement, to the public, just like you do when someone breaks out of prison," he said.
Anyone with information on Washington's whereabouts is urged to contact police.
