HOUSTON – The girlfriend of a man killed during a southeast Houston gun battle believes her boyfriend was targeted, but she does not know why.
Houston police said Michael Jerome Hilliard, 36, was shot and killed Monday night at his home on Kingsbury near Wayland. His girlfriend, Robin Destin, said she was watching TV when two armed men kicked open the front door of the home, put a gun to her head and demanded to see Hilliard, who was in another room.
"'Where is he, where is?'" Destin recalled the men shouting. "I'm screaming, 'Mike, Mike, Mike,' and you know they had a gun to my head...'Shut up, I'm going to kill you.'"
Destin said Hilliard then came out of a back room carrying a gun. Bullet holes in the walls and TV show the gun battle that followed the confrontation.
"He came around and they started shooting and, you know, he shot, his gun got jammed and they killed him," said Hilliard. "When they were shooting the guy pushed me off and I was able to run out the back door and hide in the bushes."
Both men ran off as Destin cautiously walked back inside the house. Destin said she saw Hilliard gasping for air on the floor of the living room.
"All I can see is his face with his eyes closed taking his last breath and the guy's face that had a gun to my head; that's all I can see," said Destin. "They didn't have on any masks, any gloves, anything, which is crazy so it had to be personal."
Police said nothing was stolen from the home and Destin said she and Hilliard lived together for the past year and he never mentioned having any trouble in his life.
Even though Destin was only able to give police a vague description of two black men as the shooters, she said she is positive she would be able to identify the gunmen if she saw their faces again.
Anyone with information in this case is urged to contact the HPD Homicide Division at 713-308-3600 or Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS.