HOUSTON – A 40-year-old mother died Wednesday evening after Houston police said she tried to fight off a robber at an apartment complex in southwest Houston.
Police said Ha Tran, a mother of four kids, had just parked her minivan outside her apartment complex, in the 8100 block of Maplecrest Drive, near Beechnut Street, around 9:30 p.m.
A man approached her, demanding her money and cellphone. Han fought back, and the gunman shot her twice and then ran away.
Stunned neighbors heard the gunshots and rushed outside.
"When I saw the van I knew who it was and I started crying. I was really upset. I said a little prayer hoping she would be OK,," neighbor Cinee Franklin said.
Han was rushed to Southwest Memorial Hospital in critical condition, where she later died.
Tran's husband, Bobby Cao, is trying to be strong for his children but seems lost without her by his side.
"We moved from our country, Vietnam," he told KPRC 2 News. "(We came) over here (and) we tried working hard. (We) tried to build our lives, and now it's gone," Cao said.
Han and her husband moved to Houston two years ago from Kansas because they wanted to make a better life for their four children.
Homicide detectives with the Houston Police Department believe the gunman could be linked to another robbery at the same apartment complex 30 minutes earlier. Police say he appeared to be in his early 20s and was wearing a red cap and a black shirt. He was last seen in a white, four-door sedan.
Police said in that case, two men robbed a woman at the back of the complex. The woman gave up her purse and cellphone to the thieves, and left the area.
