ROUND ROCK, Texas — A bit of good news: A Stony Point High School cheerleader who was shot in the parking lot of an Elgin H-E-B earlier this month is out of the hospital.
On April 18, Payton Washington and three of her fellow Woodlands Elite Cheer athletes were carpooling back to Central Texas from practice in Oak Ridge, Texas, when they stopped at an H-E-B in Elgin to retrieve their individual cars.
According to Lynne Shearer, owner of Woodlands Elite Cheer, one of the girls started to get into the wrong car. A man inside the car – later identified by police as 25-year-old Pedro Tello Rodriguez Jr. – got out. When the girl got back in the car she had gotten out of, she rolled down the window to apologize and the girls saw Rodriguez had a gun.
As the girls tried to drive off, Rodriguez began shooting at them, according to police records.
Two of the four athletes were hit by the gunfire. One of them was not seriously injured, but 18-year-old Washington was taken into intensive care. Details about Washington's specific injuries have not been shared.
Washington is set to attend Baylor University in Waco in the fall as part of the acrobatics and tumbling team. On April 19, her future coach told KVUE that she was making good progress, but she still had a long way to go.
On Wednesday, Shearer said Washington has been released from the hospital and is now recovering at home. She is set to begin physical therapy soon.
Rodriguez has been charged with deadly conduct, a third-degree felony. He was booked into the Bastrop County Jail on a $500,000 bond.