The Houston father who allegedly shot and killed a 17-year-old boy he caught in his daughter’s bedroom last week may not face charges, an area prosecutor told MyFoxHouston.
The prosecutor, Warren Diepraam, said that while a grand jury still must review the case, the unidentified 55-year-old father, of Near Spring, Texas, will unlikely face charges. The shooting sent shockwaves across the nation after an apparent tryst between teens ended in the death of 17-year-old Johran McCormick.
"What was going on in the person's mind at the time of the shooting, [not] what they found out after the fact" is key, Diepraam told MyFoxHouston. "They're looking at what he was thinking when he made the decision to shoot."
The deadly incident unfurled about 2:20 a.m. Thursday when the father grabbed his gun after his younger son told him that someone was in the bedroom of his 16-year-old daughter.
He called 911, but the scene quickly turned ugly when he reportedly confronted McCormick after finding him in bed with his daughter, who initially claimed she did not know him.
An argument ensued. He reportedly told the teen not to move, but McCormick apparently flinched. That’s when the dad fired, thinking the teen was reaching for a weapon, reports say. But the dad was the only one holding a gun; the teen apparently did not have one, police say. And later, the daughter confessed to sneaking McCormick into her room.
"We don't know if the father knew him or not,” Sgt. Ben Bell with the Harris County Sheriff's Department, told MyFoxHouston. The family had just moved into the neighborhood.
Read more at MyFoxHouston.