Victim identified after body found on Houston middle school lawn

Homicide detectives are continuing to investigate the murder of a man was found shot to death on Houston ISD property. So far, no arrests have been made.

Police say the body was discovered just before 10 a.m. Friday on the front lawn of Ortiz Middle School on Telephone Road.

The Harris County Medical Examiner has identified the victim as 32-year-old Adrian J. Wiggins. Wiggins was shot in the torso and neck, according to the medical examiner.

In the days since the murder, family members have left flowers and balloons in the place where his body lay. The last time they saw him alive was at Thanksgiving dinner.

“Thursday night we ate Thanksgiving dinner as a family, just like everybody else,” said Arthur Emons, Wiggins’ adoptive brother. “Me and AJ (Wiggins) sat at the truck and we talked just about random stuff.”

Emons says Wiggins left to meet a friend. The next morning passers-by discovered his body on the front lawn of Ortiz Middle School—a couple blocks from where Wiggins lived with the woman who raised him, Susan Conklin.

“Well a friend of mine come up, and he told my son Arthur that he thought he’d seen his brother down at the school laying on the ground,” said Conklin, recalling the news she received on the morning of Black Friday.

Emons went down the street to see what people were talking about.

“It’s an awful thing to see when it’s your kinfolk,” said Emons, wiping away tears.

Conklin says she wonders whether someone was targeting Wiggins or herself. The thrift store she owns in front of the home she shared with Wiggins burned last month.

“They threw my building on fire October 10 at 10:45, and then my son comes up dead, so we don’t know if it’s connected together,” said Conklin.

The murder occurred when school was out for Thanksgiving break. School officials say with the return of classes, police have increased patrols in the area.

School officials say they looked at surveillance video from the campus, but their cameras did not capture evidence of the murder.

Anyone with information on the murder of Adrian Wiggins is asked to call the Houston Police Homicide Division at 713-308-3600 or Crime Stoppers at 713-222-8477.