HOUSTON – A busy rush hour drive turned frightening for several drivers on their way home Thursday evening along Westheimer Road in the Upper Kirby area.
At least seven drivers reported damage to their cars after being hit by rocks, several of them with children in the backseat, near the 2200 block of Westheimer Road, according to court documents.
“Panicked, scared, we kept driving,” said Abosede Abiodun. “We didn’t know what it was.”
She had just picked up her 11-year-old son from his middle school when a rock came smashing through the back window of her SUV while they drove down Westheimer.
“The rock shattered the window, punctured a hole and hit him right on the right side of his arm,” she said.
A rock also smashed Chris Bacarella’s front windshield, spraying shards of glass all over the front of him, while he drove his two toddlers home.
“Initially, I thought it was something huge, I thought it was a brick,” he said. “I gotta get my kids out of there is my first thought.”
Video captured by another victim, who had a rock thrown at her windshield and through a rear door, shows the suspect hurling rocks at random on a street corner.
Police eventually arrested 41-year-old Byron Sneed. He’s facing charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and criminal mischief. He’s being held on a $100,000 bond.
“It wasn’t like it was bumper to bumper traffic,” Bacarella said. “This guy was just hurling stuff at cars going pretty fast.”
He expects to pay hundreds of dollars in repairs.
Abiodun said something like this never should have happened.
“I don’t know what we could’ve done differently, honestly. It wasn’t midnight, it wasn’t even 6pm,” she said.
She added she’s glad that police arrived and helped calm all of the victims down as soon as they did.
The suspect is due back in court on Monday.