Uber Driver Charged With Murder In Apparent Road Rage Shooting Of Houston Pastor
An Uber driver was charged with murder in the apparent road rage shooting in June of Rev. Ronald K. Mouton Sr., KPRC reported.
Witnesses said Deshawn Longmire, 23, and Mouton, 58, who was a pastor at the East Bethel Missionary Church in Houston, argued at a stoplight briefly on June 24 at the Gulf Freeway at Gould Road. As both vehicles started moving, Longmire reportedly pointed a gun out the driver-side window of his black Honda sedan and allegedly shot Mouton.
Surveillance video shows the pastor crashing his white BMW at the curb. He died at the scene as Longmire allegedly drove away. Investigators said that evidence, including records from Longmire’s Uber account, placed the Uber driver at the crime scene.
KTRK reported that there was a community-wide celebration of life in July to honor Mouton’s memory. He had been a pastor for three decades and was also an activist.
Mouton leaves behind his wife, as well as four children and ten grandchildren, according to The Christian Post.
Before Longmire was arrested, the pastor’s family made an impassioned plea for the suspect to come forward.
“We’re not looking for revenge, but I think there is something we are owed, and that is justice,” Louisiana-based Roland Mouton, the preacher’s twin brother, told the publication. “If you got a heart, if you got a conscience, ease our hurt and help us take away our anger and give us the justice that we deserve.”
“You killed a pastor, a person whose every (instinct) is to come to you in your time of need,” U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, said to the then unidentified killer. “You have taken that away from the membership of the East Bethel Baptist Church.”
In a statement to KPRC, Mouton’s family asked for privacy as they grieve their loss.
“We are still grief-stricken over this senseless tragedy. We want the man who took his life to understand the seriousness of his crime. He took the life of a husband, a father,” the statement said, adding that they hope “that justice is duly served.”
Longmire is currently in Harris County Jail on a $500,000 bond.
