HOUSTON – The man accused of shooting and killing his supervisor at a northeast Houston business after being laid off Tuesday is in custody in West Texas. Rodney Jackson turned himself in at the Fort Stockton Police Department early Wednesday, according to authorities.
A manhunt began after police say 49-year-old Jackson killed his supervisor at a warehouse.
Houston police say Jackson found out Tuesday afternoon he was losing the job he'd had for about one year at Val-Fit, a company that distributes oil field equipment.
After his supervisor, Jason S. Yanko, 40, told him that he was being terminated, Jackson snapped, went to his car and retrieved a handgun.
Jackson returned to the front door of the business where Yanko stopped him before he could re-enter. Jackson then shot Yanko several times and fled the scene in a stolen company vehicle with Val-Fit written on the truck. It was a white Ford F-350 flat bed with Texas plate number BN8-1425.
Willie Singleton, who works in the industrial park, said Yanko newly relocated to the company's Houston office.
"He just brought his wife here last week, told me he drove in from Atlanta," Singleton said.
Neighbors at Jackson's Greenspoint-area apartment complex didn't want to talk on camera but said he the accused shooter was a quiet man who kept to himself.
Singleton says he also knows Jackson and doesn't understand why he would have resorted to this deadly act.
"If you get laid off, get fired, move on and get you another job. It may be hard but nothing is fair so just do what you have to do to make a living," he said.
Val-Fit issued a statement Wednesday that read, "We do remind everyone to please respect the privacy of all involved as we mourn the loss of a very nice man."
The Pecos County Sheriff's Office said Houston police are arranging Jackson's extradition and the sheriff expects that he will be picked up "in the next day or so."