A man who should never have been released into the public was shot dead by police after stabbing an elderly woman to death at a Texas car park.
Randy Roszell Lewis, 38, should have remained behind bars at the time he stabbed eighty-year-old Rosalie Cook to death at a Houston Walgreens car park before robbing her and trying to take her car.
Cook, a disabled woman, was stabbed in the chest in broad daylight moments before Lewis tried to get away with her belongings. Police arrived at the scene to find a knife-waving Lewis rummaging through her possession–while he was out on bail.
According to the Washington Examiner, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said: “What makes me angry is that this suspect stabbed an 80-year-old woman.” he continued, “He then goes down and starts rifling through her stuff and then tries to steal her car.”
He went onto add: “This is tragic, but the most tragedy here is a woman that has died from a guy who attacked her for no reason other than to steal from her and carjack her.”
Lewis had been arrested a whopping 67 times was out on 2 felony bonds at the time of the merciless daytime stabbing. Moreover, Lewis had absconded after his release to a private residential facility–but the judge had failed to issue a warrant for his arrest.
Acevedo remarked: “The judge had not issued a warrant for his arrest even when he had absconded, so police did not even know to look for him, and unfortunately, this tragedy occurred before he could be returned to court.”
Houston’s Police Officers’ Union were incensed by the crime as they stated “Randy Lewis should never have been free. Now an innocent woman has been murdered,” in a tweet. The Fraternal Order of Police national vice president also vented his frustrations at the incident, calling it “the colossal failure of bail and CJ reform in Houston.”
