Houston neighbors near crime hotspots claim feeling ignored by city leaders

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- It was a frightening night for people across the city with four separate shootings and a total of eight people shot within just hours on Monday night into Tuesday morning.

While homicides are down citywide, it's up in some communities, and many in one neighborhood said they feel neglected by city leaders as shootings have become a nightly occurrence.

According to the Houston Police Department, one of the shootings happened in the 1400 block of Greens Parkway in north Houston.

Outside, a parked car could be seen with bullet holes through the back door.

Police say at about 10 p.m. Monday, a group of seven to 10 men were hanging out inside the store when a fight broke out, and they started shooting at each other.

In total, three people were shot, and police said one of the rounds went into the nearby apartment complex.

Directly across the street, many people at that apartment complex were too afraid even to be seen speaking with a reporter outside out of fear of retaliation. One woman said she hid in the bathtub with her children when she heard what sounded like more than a dozen gunshots. While she was terrified, she said it's become the norm.

Another man who also wished to stay anonymous said, "It is repetitive, so it's, like, 'OK, another shooting.' You don't know where they are shooting through, or at, or what. Is it a mother they're shooting at? That's the only bad thing about it. You just don't know. The other day, there was a family outside telling me about a shooting, and I said, 'I didn't even hear that one.'"

Mayor Sylvester Turner's One Safe Houston pours nearly $78 million toward reducing crime. While officials said most violent crime is down, people at Fall Lake Apartments believe certain areas, like theirs, are neglected.

"For a lot of people, nobody hears us. Who cares about us? Nobody cares," a Fall River neighbor said.

A look at the ABC13 Neighborhood Safety Tracker shows why. There have been 11 homicides in the Greenspoint area in the last 12 months, compared to six homicides in 2022 and seven in 2019.

"Crime is not down," the neighbor said. "Those city officials need to take a walk around apartment complexes like this one at night, and they can see it themselves."

ABC13 asked HPD Chief Troy Finner about the string of violence overnight and many residents not feeling safe.

"Perception is important to me as the chief and important to the mayor," Finner said. "I know one of the shootings involved gang members who were in some sort of conflict, and they came out and started shooting at one another. I don't know what we can do to prevent that. People need to make better decisions and thank God they didn't shoot any innocent people. We need to be doing everything we can to look at those locations driving crime, and if this is a hotspot, we'll clean it up."

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