2 Texas cheerleaders shot after getting into wrong car in parking lot

Police said a man opened fire at four cheerleaders after their practice.

ByMarilyn Heck ABCNews logo
Wednesday, April 19, 2023
Cheerleader from Montgomery Co. cheer company shot, critically injured
Police say Payton Washington was one of two Woodlands Elite cheerleaders hit when someone opened fire near a grocery store outside Austin. One man is in custody.

ELGIN, Texas -- Two Texas cheerleaders were shot after one of them said they had mistakenly got into the wrong vehicle in a parking lot early Tuesday morning after practice, officials said.

Elgin Police Department officials said in a statement that a 25-year-old man was arrested for the shootings. Houston ABC station KTRK verified the information with Bastrop County authorities.

One of the victims was treated and released at the scene, the other was helicoptered to a hospital and is in critical condition, according to Elgin police.

Booking photo for Pedro Tello Rodriguez Jr. (Bastrop County Sheriff's Department)

Elgin Police said they arrested Pedro Tello Rodriguez Jr., 25, and charged him with deadly conduct, a third-degree felony.

Heather Roth, a cheerleader with the Woodlands Elite Cheer Co., said on Instagram Live that she and three other cheerleaders had completed practice when they went to a carpool lot just after midnight Tuesday.

Roth said she got out of her friend's car and opened the door to a car she thought was her own, but a man was in the passenger seat. She said she got out of the car and back into her friend's vehicle.

When the man approached their vehicle, Roth rolled down the window to apologize and the man started shooting, she later said.

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