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Man wanted for murder following deadly apartment dispute in early September
FOX 26 Reporter Randy Wallace spoke with the victim's family about what happened.
HOUSTON - Damian Staggers is charged with murder. Instead of being in jail, he's on the run.
"I can't believe this happened and that guy is walking around," Michelle Scott-Grays, Carl Scott's mother, said.
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Earlier this month, Michelle buried her middle child, 31-year-old Carl.
"I felt like somebody ripped my heart out, and I still feel that way right now," she said. "I don't feel like I'm breathing."
"What he wanted most was to be around his family," Carl's stepmother Lashawn Scott-Grays said.
Carl had some run-ins with the law, but spent the last five years turning his life around.
"One thing I told him before he passed, I'm never going to bring up the past again, because the man you are today has made me a proud mother," Michelle said.
On September 6, sheriff's deputies say Staggers shot and killed Carl inside apartment 909 located at 331 Parramatta Lane.
"It all started with a dispute over rent," Lashawn said. "His girlfriend was having a dispute with her best friend of seven years about the rent that was due."
Instead of paying the rent, Staggers reportedly sent Carl's girlfriend threatening texts.
"He was saying he was going to kill her," said Michelle. "He was going to have her family members beat up."
"Carl being Carl, when he takes you as family, he's going to protect you," Lashawn said. "Information we got from the neighbors,
"Damian Staggers was walking through the apartment complex talking about murder on his mind."
Deputies say after killing Carl, Staggers took off and is now wanted for murder.
"Now, we have to mourn and wish to hear his voice again, which is never going to happen over rent," said Lashawn.
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Carl's mother has this message for her son's accused killer.
"I hate you for destroying my family," Michelle said. "I hate that you couldn't be a man and talk it out."
If you know the whereabouts of Damian Staggers, call the Harris County Sheriff's Office or Crime Stoppers.