HPD: Gas station clerk shoots man after altercation

HOUSTON – A southeast Houston gas station clerk shot a man who hit him in the face, police said.

The shooting happened outside the Valero gas station on Martin Luther King Boulevard at Bellfort Street at 3:30 a.m. Monday.

According to Houston police, Alexander Colloway III, 21, went to the security glass at the convenience store and asked for cigarettes. When the clerk unlocked the doors to try and get him to leave, he said Colloway threatened to kill him and hit him in the face, investigators said.

Detectives said the clerk told them that he saw Colloway was with two other men who had guns in their car.

The clerk pulled out a gun and shot Colloway in the stomach, police said. The clerk then ran back inside the store and locked the door, police said.

Investigators said the two men who were with Colloway ran up to the security window and fired multiple shots into the store.

A friend took Colloway to a firehouse in the 11000 block of Cullen for help. Colloway was taken to Ben Taub Hospital in critical condition. Relatives said Colloway has not been breathing on his own.

"Y'all know that's wrong," said Colloway's father. "My son come to that store every day."

Detectives said Colloway was not armed when he was shot.

The clerk said he fired his weapon in self-defense.

This was not the first shooting at the store. Last fall, two clerks were helping a customer when two masked men stormed in and immediately started firing. A clerk was wounded in the leg.

Community activist Quanell X said he has a lot of questions about Monday's shooting.

"Why did it take a clerk coming from behind bulletproof glass, bulletproof windows, and go outside and shoot someone?" Quanell X said. "If it was that serious, they could have handled it with the police department, not them."

Quanell X spoke to another clerk at the store and gave him a warning to pass along.

"Let the owner know there are going to be problems," Quanell X said. "What happened here shouldn't have happened."

Police said they were checking surveillance cameras outside the store to see what led up to the shooting.

Investigators have not said if the clerk will be charged. One of the men who was with Colloway, Kenneth DeWayne Bogan, has been charged with aggravated assault, police said.

Quanell X said a protest has been scheduled for 3 p.m. Tuesday outside the store.