The shooting of two cheerleaders in Elgin, Texas drew national attention as one of four U.S. incidents within one week where people were shot after making an innocent mistake.
Key Facts
- Date of incident
- April 18, 2023, just after midnight
- Victims
- Payton Washington and Heather Roth, competitive cheerleaders
- Location
- H-E-B supermarket parking lot, Elgin, Texas
- Trigger
- Roth mistakenly entered a vehicle she believed was hers
- Washington's condition
- Critically wounded
- Related incidents same week
- 3 other shootings of people who made innocent mistakes
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
Heather Roth mistakenly entered a vehicle in an H-E-B supermarket parking lot in Elgin, Texas, believing it to be her own car. The occupant of the vehicle responded to the error with gunfire, shooting both Roth and her companion Payton Washington.
Just after midnight on April 18, 2023, Payton Washington and Heather Roth, both competitive cheerleaders, were shot in the parking lot of an H-E-B supermarket in Elgin, Texas. Washington sustained critical wounds, while Roth was also wounded in the attack.
The shooting became part of a nationally noted pattern of four separate U.S. incidents within one week in which individuals were shot after making an innocent mistake, prompting widespread public debate about gun violence and the use of lethal force in response to accidental intrusions or errors.