Bethany Mefford was asleep in her apartment in the Houston suburbs when she was hit and killed by a stray bullet fired by a neighbor, Darius Lewis. Lewis was firing at people breaking into vehicles, and one of the rounds he fired entered Mefford’s apartment and hit her in what her family called a “senseless crime.”
According to authorities, Mefford’s boyfriend found her unresponsive in their bed at around 6 a.m. on Wednesday. Investigators now allege that Mefford, who was 29 years old at the time of her death, was hit in the head by a bullet Lewis, who lived in a nearby building in the same apartment complex, fired. had been shot in the head by a bullet that had been fired hours earlier by Darius Lewis. He lived in a nearby building in the same apartment complex in the Houston suburb of Humble, said Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez.
“It is a horrible thing to have happened to someone that’s laying in their bed, not causing anybody any problems because Bethany never would,” said Lana Higinbotham, Mefford’s aunt. “And to just be taken in your sleep, taken away from your family that loves you more than life, it’s a senseless crime.”
Ed Gonzalez of the Harris County Sheriff’s Office tweeted about the incident. He first posted a two-part thread about the shooting, saying:
@HCSOTexas units responded to an incident at at apt complex at 14807 Woodland Hills. Arriving units found an adult female (late 20s) still in her bed, deceased from an apparent gunshot wound. Early this morning, a person is suspected of firing shots at suspected burglars.
Investigators will look into the possibility that one of the shots penetrated the wall and fatally wounded the female. All info is preliminary. I will be enroute and join Investigators/PIO at the scene.
He later updated that with three more tweets, saying:
Arrest update: the victim has been identified as Bethany Mefford (28). Earlier in the morning, at about 2:30 a.m., several suspects were observed in the complex parking lot breaking into vehicles. An apt complex resident, Darius Lewis, who lives across the parking lot from the victim, observed this and went outside in the parking and fired his pistol multiple times at the suspects breaking into the vehicles. HCSO deputies took two adults and one juvenile suspect into custody during the incident. Lewis was spoken to by the patrol deputies but he claimed to have only fired his gun into the ground to scare the burglary suspects. Investigators interviewed Lewis and reviewed evidence at the scene. Lewis was taken into custody and charged with Manslaughter.
Mefford was a mother of three young boys. Originally from southwestern Pennsylvania, she had moved to the Houston area several years ago with her mother and stepfather, who had both received job transfers. She had, just before her death, been hired by the same oil drilling company where her mother worked.
This isn’t the first stray bullet to have hit someone recently in Texas. A college baseball player was recently hit and put in the ICU by a stray bullet fired in a gunfight between gangs, as we recently reported on the American Tribune, saying:
Demarco Banks, 20, and Kamauri Butler, 17, are both now in custody for the April shooting of Texas A&M baseball player Matthew Delaney. Delaney, just 18 years old, was shot in the chest while standing near the bullpen at George Dobson Field. Butler was charged with aggravated assault and Banks was charged with deadly conduct.
The bullet that hit him was fired by warring factions in a nearby neighborhood. The young baseball player remains in intensive care with serious injuries, including paralysis of his left leg, two broken vertebrae, and a collapsed lung. The doctors cannot remove the bullet, which remains lodged near his spine.
Featured image credit: Mefford image form Bethany Mefford Facebook, Lewis image mugshot
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