Walmart security guard shoots 'shoplifting' mother dead in parking lot as she tries to escape with two young children
- Shelly Frey was shot dead attempting to drive away from off-duty sheriff deputy Louis Campbell who suspected her of shoplifting
- He fired when Frey and her two alleged accomplices accelerated when he opened the car door
- There were two small children in the car at the time of the shooting
By
James Nye
PUBLISHED:
11:09 EST, 8 December 2012
|
UPDATED:
23:55 EST, 8 December 2012
A 27-year-old mother of two has
been fatally shot by an off-duty sheriff's deputy after he suspected her
of shoplifting at a Houston Walmart.
Harris County Sheriff's deputies have said that victim Shelly Frey, Tisa Andrews and Yolanda Craig
were stealing when they were confronted by Louis Campbell a 26-year
veteran of the force who works as a security guard at the store.
According
to Campbell the women ran to their car and when he rushed to open the
door, they accelerated away - at which point he fired the deadly shot
into the car which hit Frey in the neck.
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Shelly Frey (left and right) was shot in the
neck and died after failing to stop for an off-duty sheriff's deputy in
Houston, Texas
Security at the store on the
14000 block of the North Freeway had noticed the three women 'stuffing
items inside their purses' and notified Campbell, who was working an
extra job that evening.
Investigators
with Harris County said the three women even attempted to pay for some
small items to act as a cover for the shoplifted ones.
After chasing Frey and the other two women to their car, Campbell opened the door and commanded Frey to get out. But she refused, officials said
Andrews began to drive away while the deputy was standing between the open door and the driver's seat.
'She threw it in reverse and tried to run over the deputy,' said Harris County Sheriff's Office spokesperson Deputy Thomas Gilliland.
'He confronted the suspects at exit of the store before they left.
One female wouldn't stop, struck the deputy with her purse, ran off.'
'I think it knocked him off balance and, in fear of his life and being ran over, he discharged his weapon at that point.'
Tiasa Andrews, Yolanda Craig were arrested at
1300 block of Greens Parkway where their friend Shelly Frey had died
from her gunshot wounds
The Walmart store at 14000 block of the North Freeway in Houston where the alleged robbery occurred
Inside the car as it was speeding away were two small children - investigators have said that they were not Frey's children.
Gilliland said it was clear that the deputy was law enforcement.
'He
was clearly marked in uniform as a Harris County deputy. And identified
himself as the suspects were leaving the establishment,' said Gilliland
to KHOU.Com
Despite
the shooting, the women fled but eventually they stopped at The
Worthington at the Beltway apartments in the 1300 block of Greens
Parkway.
Paramedics from the Houston Fire Department arrived to try and save Frey, but she was pronounced dead at the scene.
'Shelly was the perfect mom, perfect friend, perfect daughter,' said her father, Shelton Frey.
He
said that his daughter had moved to Houston after Hurricane Katrina to
start a new life, but the amount of work she could do was limited by her
two-year-old who has sickle cell anemia.
The deceased's mother Sharon Wilkerson was
devastated that the deputy fired into a car with two small children
inside and killed her daughter
'Why couldn’t you just shoot the tire, shoot the window?' said her mother Sharon Wilkerson. 'Was it that serious?'
She
added that even if her daughter had committed a crime, she did not
deserve to die and she worries now for her two young grandchildren.
'How do I tell these children she's not coming back,' said Sharon.
'To
me, it should never (have) happened. I wish the officer didn’t shoot
her. I wish he shot her tires just to slow her down. That’s a mother you
know. And now they have to figure out what to do with the kids,' said
Angel Gaines, a neighbor.
Kesha Sapp, a woman who knew Frey, agreed.
'What
that look like with him shooting with the darn kids in the car? There
were kids in the car with them. Why is he shooting at the car? Come on
now, that makes him look bad. That don’t even look right,' said Sapp.
Both Andrews and Craig, the two other women allegedly involved, have been charged with shoplifting.
Tragically, Frey wasn't even supposed to be at a Walmart that evening.
Earlier
in the year she pleaded guilty to stealing shirts and a package of meat
from another Walmart and as part of her plea arrangement she agreed to
never enter Walmart stores again.
Deputy Campbell is on three days paid leave as is standard protocol.
He's been with the Harris County Sheriff's Office for 26 years.
The
Harris County Sheriff's Homicide Unit, Office of the Inspector General
and the Harris County District Attorney's Office will investigate this
incident. The case will be turned over to a grand jury.
Walmart offered the following statement: 'This is a tragic
situation and we recognize this is a difficult time for all parties
involved. We're committed to working with law enforcement and providing
any information we have as they determine the facts of the case. Because
this is an active investigation, any specific details of the incident
should come from law enforcement.
'We hire off duty officers to
provide security to some of our stores. While we have policies in place
for our associates to disengage from situations that might put them or
others in harm's way, off-duty officers working at a WM store are
authorized to act in accordance with their department's code of
conduct.'
Edited by solo - Dec 09 2012 at 1:23pm