HOUSTON – After two violent back-to-back run-ins with gunmen, a 5th Ward woman said she is too shaken up to be identified, but felt the need to tell her story.
“It’s been hectic, emotionally. We’re drained. Lately, we’ve been scared, panicked and we don’t know what to do,” the woman said.
The woman said what started as a harmless high school beef between her son and another boy over a girl, escalated when the other boy showed up at their home with two grown men last month.
“They hopped out the car, guns drawn and they asked, excuse my french, ‘Where was that lil —— at that was talking about killing my nephew,’” the woman said.
The woman said she and her husband deescalated the situation and then called the police.
“They could’ve killed us right then and there,” she said.
The woman said she was able to identify one of the gunmen out of a photo lineup as convicted felon Joshua Mathes.
The next day, on Sept. 2, the woman said things took a turn for the worse when Mathes and the man he was with the day before saw her husband at the Joy’s Food Mart a few blocks away.
“My husband was approached and they put two guns in his mouth and laid him on the ground,” she said.
The woman said they robbed her husband for $23, his handgun and a cell phone. She said they then told him to get up and start running home as gunfire erupted, nearly striking him.
“The bullet ricocheted off the trash can, once the bullet ricocheted off the trash can, my husband said he went into the bayou by the Joy’s Food Mart and hid for a second,” she said.
Mathes nor his alleged accomplice have been seen since, but police issued warrants for Mathes’ arrest with charges including aggravated assault, aggravated robbery and unlawful carrying of a weapon.
The woman said her family has other guns, but with Mathes and the other man still out on the streets, her concerns are only growing.
“I want this to end, not just for me, but for everyone,” she said.
The woman said she believes her husband was robbed because they reported the prior altercation to the police.
She said that won’t stop her from telling her story and helping to put the gunmen behind bars.
If you know where Joshua Mathes or his alleged accomplice is call, you are urged to call Crime Stoppers at 713-222-tTIPS.