HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — As 13 Investigates looks into the cost of gun violence, we spoke with shooting victims who survived and told us it has forever changed their lives – from unwanted medical bills simply because they were innocent bystanders in a shooting to living in fear that a suspect hasn’t been caught.
“When I close my eyes and I cover my ears, I remember everything like it was yesterday,” said one victim who was shot in the stomach on New Year’s Day. “I have real bad anxiety to the point where it will have me panicking, like having a panic attack.”
Although detectives are assigned to every shooting, Houston police tell us they have to consider what they call solvability factors: a known suspect, a cooperating victim, surveillance video and eyewitnesses – without a few of those, it’s not likely HPD can afford to give it much time and even they admit it isn’t enough.
One of the victims we spoke with said her case hasn’t been solved, and since a suspect hasn’t been arrested in her cases, she asked that we not use her name.
“I was expecting (police) to like reach out to me like, ‘Hey, do you know what happened? What area was this in? Do you want us to go get cameras?’ Something — I just wanted them to help me in a way, but moreso I felt alone in that situation because they didn’t talk to me,” she said.
