Houston grand jury declines to charge man who shot and killed robber inside taqueria

A grand jury in Texas has decided not to charge a man who shot and killed a robber inside a Houston taqueria last year. 

A grand jury decided on Wednesday that it will not charge a man who shot and killed 30-year-old Eric Eugene Washington, according to a press release from the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, after Washington entered the El Ranchito taqueria in January 2023 while flashing what appeared to be a gun and robbing the residents inside in an incident that was captured on video. 

“Grand jurors ‘no billed’ the shooter,” the press release stated.

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“Harris County grand juries are composed of 12 randomly selected residents who meet regularly for a period of three months to review all criminal charges to decide whether there is enough evidence for a case to proceed,” the press release explained. 

“If nine or more grand jurors agree that probable cause exists, they issue a “true bill,” or indictment, and the case continues on through the criminal justice system. If nine or more grand jurors determine probable cause does not exist, they may issue a ‘no bill,’ effectively clearing the individual of criminal wrongdoing. The final decision as to whether to indict rests with grand jurors, not with prosecutors.”

The armed customer, described by Houston police as a White or Hispanic male, fired at least nine shots from behind at the suspect who dropped to the ground and died. 

Police later determined that the gun was a fake plastic pistol and asked for the public’s help locating the man before the case was eventually sent to a grand jury by Houston’s progressive George Soros-backed prosecutor Kim Ogg. 

The security video went viral on social media, and activists quickly called for the man, who has not been identified by authorities, to be pursued for criminal charges in what they called an act of vigilantism. 

Others argued that the man’s actions were a legitimate form of self-defense and that he had reasonable cause to believe his life was in danger. 

“As long as the individual, this armed Samaritan, believes that the firearm was real or could have been real, that’s what is important, not the actual nature of it,” Houston criminal defense attorney Sean Buckley told Fox News Digital last year.

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“A person is justified in using force against another person when and to the degree he or she reasonably believes force is immediately necessary to protect him against the other person’s use of force.”

Washington’s mother, Corine Goodman, said the shooter should have stopped firing as soon as there was no longer a threat. 

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“If you had to kill him, I can deal with that. I can come to grips with that. He did something wrong, I understand that,” she said. “But for him to be shot four times in the back leaving and when he falls down and he shoots him four more times. He abused him.”

Fox News Digital’s Louis Casiano contributed to this report