HOUSTON – Houston Police Department detectives are piecing together details of a deadly scene that unfolded in a shopping strip on Corporate and Beechnut Monday night.
At least 13 evidence markers could be seen on the ground, as well as a man’s covered body.
That man has been identified by his father as 34-year-old Fatorma Gabba Jr.
Houston police said the call for the shooting outside of the Boost Mobile came in at 7:31 p.m. Once there, officers immediately found the body.
They said they also learned there was another victim, a woman who was in a vehicle and was also hit. She was driven to a nearby hospital and then transported downtown to another health care facility. Her condition is unknown, but officers believe she was likely an innocent bystander.
Homicide said there was a group of males in their 20s involved in a disturbance that escalated to gunfire. Two people pulled guns and multiple shots were fired.
As for Gabba Jr., investigators do not believe he was one of the shooters.
The victim’s father, Fatorma Gabba Sr., happens to work in the Harris County juvenile justice system with misdirected youth. He said he brought his family here from Sierra Leone for a better life, but his son at times chose to hang with the wrong crowd. He suspects that may have something to do with what happened to him.
“People from Africa, we are normally, we are each other’s keepers. We take care of our children. Everybody talked to him, we would advise him, but then, like I said, he wanted a different lifestyle, unfortunately. I knew this could’ve been one of the consequences, but I wasn’t expecting that it would end this way,” the father said.
HPD released a picture of the suspected killer wearing a black hoodie, grey sweatpants, and only one shoe.
We’re told he got in a black, four-door sedan that left the parking lot in an unknown direction. They think the other shooter may have run away.
There were several people detained for being uncontrollable and disturbing the crime scene, but the main focus remains on who was involved in that original altercation and why.
Anyone with information on the identity of the wanted suspect or in this case is urged to contact the HPD Homicide Division at (713) 308-3600 or speak anonymously to Crime Stoppers at (713) 222-TIPS.
