steven0515

I wish I could remember the name of the place next to Walgreens. I can't. I do remember that Walgreens expanded into that space.

This was just one of those things that can happen anytime or anyplace. This guy was a loose cannon and just happened to live in our area. Otherwise, it was a great neighborhood. I'd be happy to still live there today, although I do enjoy Huntington Beach quite a bit. But, overall, Houston was and remains a very friendly town.

I was there that day. Riding my bike just a few steps behind Karen Kurtz. I was unfortunately the first to help her. She was shot in the back of the upper thigh. The bullet just made a small pierce of her skin and there was just a trickle of blood coming down her leg. She was wearing a skirt that day. She was in a lot of pain. I had just past one of my baseball coaches, Mr. Poling, who was in his garage at Willowbend and Cliffwood. I ran to ask him to call an ambulance, that a girl had been shot. He was quite alarmed and I remember him saying, "Shot with a gun?" I just said yes and it was bad. He ran inside to call. As I went back toward where Karen was laying in the grass, I noticed another girl laying in the middle of the street around the corner on Creekbend. I ran over to find see had been shot also. I ran back to Mr. Poling's house and just as I came up to his garage he was coming outside loading up a shotgun. I asked him to call another ambulance that another girl had shot. I went back over to Creekbend because that girl was not moving and she looked more serious. She was actually dead. A nurse started to try CPR on her but her windpipe had been destroyed, shot in the throat. About that time my mom had come all the way up from our house on Kingfisher, 7 or 8 steets down. I had no idea but she had only seen my bike left with Karen and could not find me. She was completely frantic. An ambulance arrived , then another. Now police were everywhere. As I went back to my bike with my mom, the guy came around the corner from Willowbend to Cliifwood right in front of the police cars. We pointed him out. His car had blood over the front of it because when he had shot the Jakubowski girl on her sidewalk, she fell off the tricycle and into the street. He ran her over and left blood on the front of his car. This was a crazy set of events. We later learned that he shot the older lady on Benning earlier in the day. Police thought that was isolated. Then, he shot the Jakubowski girl but because he ran her over as well, police thought that was a hit and run and not related. Had he not run over the Jakubowski girl, that might have been the only two people he shot that day as it would have alerted the police. I also found out that he shot my classmate Lynn Tucker that day. This guy, Larry Delon Casey, was going to get out of Huntsville's Wynn unit a few years ago. He hired a hit against the District Attorney Bert Graham and got sentenced to two more 99 year terms. So, he'll never be free as it looks. Saved me a bullet. It's been 35 years now since this happened. I still think about it a lot. Not every day, but about half the days. I suppose it leaves quite an impression on a 10 year old 5th grade kid. One good thing came out it for me. I am always very aware of my surroundings and always watch for people not looking quite right. Slow moving cars concern me. Steve Hutchinson