Texas Man Shoots Cheerleaders After 1 Mistakenly Got Into His Car

A Texas man has been arrested for allegedly shooting two cheerleaders after one mistakenly got into the wrong car after practice.

Pedro Tello Rodriguez Jr., 25, was charged with deadly conduct, but Elgin, Texas, police say more charges are likely pending the investigation into the shooting, according to reports.

One cheerleader, Heather Roth, was switching cars after practice in a parking lot, mistakenly opening the door to a car she thought was hers, but Rodriguez was sitting in the passenger seat. Roth returned to her original car, but Rodriguez allegedly approached that car and opened fire, shooting several times before fleeing.

Roth was grazed by a bullet, while her friend Payton Washington was shot in the leg and the back and is in critical condition.

“Payton opens the door, and she starts throwing up blood,” Roth told ABC-13 KTRK.

A coach said on Instagram that Washington has damage to several organs and had her spleen removed. She was already cheerleadering with just one lung, according to Woodlands Elite Cheer Company co-owner Lynne Shearer.

“She’s a fighter,” Shearer told ABC-13. “She’s very strong.”

The cheerleaders were practicing for a trip to Cheerleading Worlds competition in Orlando, Florida, this weekend.

“It’s the only title [Washington] hasn’t won in All-Star Cheer,” Shearer told ABC-13. “She’s literally won everything there is to win in this sport except for a world title, and this was her last chance to do that.

“Payton is the ultimate competitor. She would not want her team not to go and not be at this championship and not compete. So we will be there, and we will compete.”

Police have surveillance footage of the parking lot shooting, including the shots fired, but have not released them to the public amid the investigation, according to the report.