HOUSTON – A man has been arrested and charged after a deadly shooting at a convenience store in Sunnyside on Monday.
Al Vernon Brown, 47, has been charged with murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and aggravated assault against a public servant. He was scheduled to appear in court Tuesday but was not brought into the courtroom because he was being combative, according to a judge.
On Monday, Houston police said Brown entered a convenience store located at 9635 Scott Street with two pistols in his hands and demanded five customers and three employees to lock the door and get on the ground. Brown then threatened to shoot anyone who tried to leave, according to police.
Police said several people outside the store saw what was happening, and a 17-year-old who had his own weapon entered the store and demanded Brown to release the hostages.
“Regardless of what he had on him, he spared his life so those kids could make it out the store,” said Vernon Neville, a mentor in the community.
Police said the teenager, who was identified by his family members as Andrell Lamon, pointed his gun at Brown, who then fired both of his guns at the teen and an unknown hostage who fled the store.
Lamon was struck in the torso and fled outside where he later collapsed. Lamon was transported to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.
“My niece was one of the kids in the store,” Neville said.
Neville said a majority of the hostages were children under the age of 17 with the youngest being 7-years-old.
Keith Henry is also a youth mentor. He said he fears the children will have PTSD after the trauma they experienced.
“We’re trying to help them heal from the trauma. That’s trauma,” Henry said. “You have veterans and military people go overseas to war and they get affected by seeing people get killed. That’s the same thing.”
Brown is in the Harris County jail on a $650,000 bond for all three charges.