RICHMOND, Texas – Richmond Police are looking for a man who posed as a utility worker before he shot and killed a pharmacy employee during a robbery in broad daylight.
The fatal shooting happened around 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday at a business located in the 300 block of South 9th Street, blocks from Richmond City Hall.
The victim’s widow, Teanna Gates, worked at her aunt’s pharmacy with her husband of six years, Rashad. She watched the gunman storm the business before he killed her husband and the father of their two young boys.
“Always put family first. That was his motto, my family comes first before anything,” Teanna said.
The man walked into the pharmacy, dressed as a utility worker, and told them he was there to do some work.
“He’s like, ‘We need to come in and fix the water, some busted pipe,’” Teanna said.
But the same man returned minutes later with an AR-style weapon, she said, demanding medicine, money, and phones.
“I thought I was going to die,” Teanna said. “I was thinking of ways to try to escape, what I was going to do, how I was going to do it.”
She said her husband told her to run for help, which is when she went into a neighboring business to call 911. But before police arrived, the gunman took her husband’s life and took off with $400 and two cell phones.
Richmond Fire Department and Fort Bend County EMS responded to the scene and attempted to provide life-supporting aid to the shooting victim. He was taken to Oak Bend Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.
“You don’t process it. You don’t. I just know I got kids to live for, you know. He sacrificed his life for mine and my aunt’s for a reason,” Teanna said.
She hopes someone will come forward to help her family move forward.
“You never know what he’s able to do after that in broad daylight,” Teanna said.
The suspect was described as wearing khaki pants, and an orange safety vest, unknown color shirt. He was wearing a mask, gloves, hard hat, and sunglasses, according to police.
Richmond Police call it an active investigation and ask anyone with information to call Det. John Dawson at 281-342-2849.