steven0515

The BBQ place east of the tracks was called Mels, I believe. Burger King has come up quite a bit in this thread. now here is a question. Sometime before or after Burger King was built, the Walgreens building at Willowbend and Post Oak had a very similar resturant next door to it. It was not there that long but did have a sandwich I believe was called a Yumbo with ham in it. I know what the name of this place was. Does anyone else know. I know LunaticFringe knows, so don't answer

See you at Rumplheimers...

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.

Gosh, Steve, what a thing to go through. When I first moved to Houston, strangers would say "hello" as I got on an elevator or just to get my mail. It would freak me out so bad that at first, I'd just freeze. Having been born and raised in Detroit, I thought bad stuff only happened there (circa 1980, it's getting better now). But, wow, Houston was such a friendly place, I couldn't help but love it. Just shows you that loose cannons can be anywhere.

I'm just sorry you had your first crime experience so young, esp one so violent; that had to mess your head up for a while. It was quite a story and couldn't be easy for you in bringing up the past again. Appreciate your sharing it with us.

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.

Yowzer. I'd never heard about this. Someone was killed on my block!

flipper

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