Teen girl arrested in shooting that killed young woman in Houston
HOUSTON - A young woman was killed when bullets pierced the walls of her bedroom in northwest Harris County. Deputies say they do not believe she was the intended target, but instead her 15-year-old brother.
Investigators have charged 18-year-old Emma Presler with murder in the shooting death of 20-year-old Sierra Rhodds.
Presler is currently booked into the Harris County Jail on an unrelated charge.
Sierra was shot through the window of her bedroom and killed around 11 p.m. Sunday.
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Her parents and brother were home when it happened.
“I just want them caught so bad,” said Michael Rhodd, Sierra’s dad earlier on Monday. “I want to look them in the eye and tell them what they took from me.”
Rhodd stood outside his home pleading for answers hours after the shooters who killed his daughter went on the run.
Sierra suffered from muscular dystrophy and lived with her parents on Timber Crest Drive in northwest Houston. Her dad says the gunfire came out of nowhere.
“I went to ask her what she wanted to eat,” said Rhodd. “About the time that happened, they started shooting. All I could do is grab my wife, throw her to the ground, and try to run to my kids, and when I did, I got to her room, and she was just laying there. I tried to do everything I could, and I couldn’t do nothing.”
The neighbor Salvador Martinez heard the gunfire and rushed to help too.
“She was laying down on the floor,” said Martinez. “I went over there because everybody was screaming, and we tried to help her out. I went to see if she had a pulse and everything, but she didn’t.”
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Deputies learned that the victim’s 15-year old brother discharged a handgun at the suspects as they were fleeing.
Video surveillance footage captured three vehicles, a dark-colored sedan, a motorcycle, and truck traveling westbound towards the victim’s residence prior to the shooting. Neighbors reported seeing a dark0colored sedan and a red pickup truck fleeing the scene immediately after the shooting.
On Monday a crew boarded up the windows to Sierra’s bedroom while detectives looked through surveillance video from a nearby business on the search for suspects.
The investigation revealed the motive for the shooting to be a retaliation against Sierra's 15-year-old brother due to an ongoing feud with several individuals.
Sierra’s dad believes it was a group of about seven gang members that circled the house.
“All I know is some gang called 10K,” said Rhodd.
As for his son, Rhodd told FOX 26, “He’s pretty torn up.”
“She didn’t deserve to go in any way like this,” said Rhodd. “She never hurt anybody—always worried about what everybody else—how they felt.”
If you have any more information on the deadly shooting on Timber Crest Drive, call Harris County Sheriff’s Office or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS.