Fatal shooting of 17-year-old passenger after Astros game was road rage incident, Houston police say

By Amir Vera, Carma Hassan and Keith Allen, CNN

A 17-year-old who died Thursday was shot following a road rage incident after a major league baseball game in Houston, a police spokesman said Friday.

David Castro and his brother were passengers in his father Paul Castro’s car on Tuesday when an unidentified suspect in another vehicle opened fire.

At a news conference Friday afternoon, Detective Justin Brown said authorities wanted “to disseminate some of the information we’ve received on the shooting case, the road rage case from the Astros game the other night.”

Brown said that video taken from various sources captured the suspect’s route when he first merged into traffic as the Astros game was letting out.

“You can see him driving aggressively, trying to get around traffic he’s actually swerving around people in the intersections,” Brown said. Then, Brown said, the suspect and the Castro family “sort of meet together …”

The suspect followed Mr. Castro, then fired several shots at his vehicle, at least one of them hitting David Castro, according to a news release from the Houston Police Department.

Police spokesperson Jodi Silva said authorities are investigating the shooting as a homicide.

Paul Castro, David’s father, told CNN he was driving his two sons after the Houston Astros’ game when they encountered the suspect in a white vehicle.

Castro said they were stopped in traffic after the game, about two blocks from the stadium. He let three cars from lanes alongside him pass before he tried to move up, and that’s when he encountered the suspect, he said. The suspect’s vehicle was in a lane that was merging into Castro’s and there was a police officer overseeing traffic.

“I look in the rearview mirror on my right and I see (the suspect’s) car. I had let three cars go, I start moving and he starts moving into my lane. I don’t let up and he is getting closer, he pulls up to the cones, opens his car door and starts yelling at me,” Castro said. “He’s yelling at me and he’s pointing at me. All I did was, I motion and I say ‘I’ve already let three cars go.’ The cop tells me to stop, so I stop, he goes, so he won. He took the lane.”

But the incident did not end there. Castro says he and his sons were nervous about the encounter so they went a different direction and the suspect pursued them for approximately 3 miles, flashing his high beams before getting so close Castro couldn’t see his car lights.

Castro said he decided to make a U-turn and as he made the turn, he heard gunshots.

Castro said his son was put on life support — because his family wanted to donate his organs — before he was declared dead Thursday at 4:45 p.m., Castro said.

David was a percussionist in the Westside High School marching band and was looking forward to being the section leader in the fall, during what would have been his senior year, his father said. “He was the gentlest, nicest kid in the world. He wouldn’t use these electric fly swatters I have, he literally would not hurt a fly,” Castro said. “He worried about other people first.”

Police have released surveillance photos of the suspect’s vehicle and are asking for any information on the suspect or the vehicle. The suspect was driving what is believed to be a 2010 — 2014 Buick Lacrosse with a sunroof, paper tags, and no front plates.

Paul Castro is asking for the city of Houston to commit “random acts of kindness” on behalf of his son’s life, and one of them is to turn in the suspect.

“I’m asking for your help in bringing him to justice, and I’m not angry at him. I’m angry at what he did, I don’t know who he is, but I know he killed my son. And I’m not looking for blood justice I’m looking for justice,” Castro said at Friday’s news conference.

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