A sheriff’s office in Harris County, Texas said Friday that a street sweeper was shot and killed while at work in a Lowe’s parking lot.
The man, Jose Canales, 56, was operating a sweeping truck and stopped to pick up some “large debris” when an SUV entered the parking lot and two men got out of the vehicle, according to Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez.
On Twitter, Gonzalez wrote that the men approached Canales, and that “Canales began to resist and began fighting with the suspect.” The suspect shot Canales and both suspects fled the scene.
“Canales was discovered when night shift employees exited the store,” Gonzalez stated.
“We need your help! This is awful! Canales was simply working, minding his business, and he’s murdered,” he added.
@HCSOTexas Homicide is investigating the murder of a male at 19580 Tomball Parkway. The male, identified as Jose Canales (56), was operating a parking lot sweeping truck. He stopped the truck to pick up some large debris. A silver suv entered the lot, two black males exited (1/3) pic.twitter.com/a95R4OuOls
— Ed Gonzalez (@SheriffEd_HCSO) February 11, 2022
In a statement to Newsweek, the Harris County Sheriff’s Office said the man was discovered “lying outside his vehicle with a gunshot wound to the leg” by a patrol unit at around 4 a.m. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Law enforcement officials noted when the two suspects went up to Canales, one of them approached him, while the other went to the passenger side of Canales’ truck “and immediately entered the vehicle.”
“Anyone with information about this incident is urged to the contact the Harris County Sheriff’s Office or CrimeStoppers of Houston,” the sheriff’s office said.
AFP Contributor
In a separate incident this week, police in New York City said that a sanitation worker was shot in broad daylight on Thursday after he attempted to help his daughter who was in an argument with her boyfriend.
The man was shot in the leg and taken to the hospital in stable condition. Police said they were searching for two suspects in connection with the shooting.
In another shooting in Harris County, the manager of a Cracker Barrel restaurant was killed in January after someone attempted to rob one of her employees. The manager, Robin Baucom, was shot and killed after she pushed back when the suspect tried to grab the worker’s purse.
“She is our hero and we hope she will be remembered as a hero because she lost her life trying to protect her employees and Cracker Barrel. She was always taking care of business wherever she was needed,” Baucom’s family said in a statement.