HOUSTON – A Dickinson 17-year-old is behind bars again, only five months after his previous arrest, for allegedly shooting another teen in the chest.
Mario Martinez's mother said it's a miracle her 18-year-old son made it out alive after getting shot. On Monday, he was at home recovering.
Sunday night, Maria Martinez said her son asked if he could borrow the car to get something at the store with his girlfriend. When he showed up again at his home on 34th Street in Dickinson, his life was on the line.
"I went with him in the ambulance and the driver just said 'your son had a big angel watching over him' and I said I know," Maria Martinez said.
Dickinson police said Mario's girlfriend identified the shooter as Stephen Gendron.
"It's kind of crazy," said Alexander Robinson, Gendron's friend.
After Gendron allegedly shot Martinez in his car on 39th Street, police said Gendron ended up at Robinson's house on Missouri Avenue.
"When he tried to rob the dude he pointed the gun at him and he went to grab it and he shot him twice," Robinson said.
Robinson added he and Gendron attended Dickinson Alternative Learning Center together. At one point, the pair attended Dickinson High with Martinez.
Last September, police say Gendron, Robinson and 19-year-old Kourtnie Lavrune Tyson were arrested for a home burglary and inadvertently shooting a person sitting in a car while target practicing in the woods, police said. The victim in that shooting survived and the case is still pending, police said.
The shooting occurred on the 4900 block of FM 517 and the home burglary was on the 3900 block of Texas avenue. Police said the trio stole a laptop computer and a safe from the home.
In Sunday's shooting Gendron is charged with a first-degree felony which has a possible life sentence attached to it. Police have not been able to confirm why Gendron allegedly shot Martinez they are still investigating.