The shooting in Elgin, east of Austin, happened early on Tuesday (late Tuesday AEST) in a car park that serves as a carpool pickup spot for members of the Woodlands Elite Cheer Company, team owner Lynne Shearer said.
She said she panicked and got back into her friend’s car, but the man got out of his vehicle and approached.
She said she tried to apologise through her friend’s car window.
“He just threw his hands up, and then he pulled out a gun and he just started shooting at all of us,” Roth said, fighting tears.
Roth was grazed by a bullet and was treated at the scene, police said. Her teammate Payton Washington, 18, was shot in the leg and back.
“Payton opens the door, and she starts throwing up blood,” Roth said.
Washington was flown to a hospital in critical condition. Doctors had to remove part of Washington’s spleen, KTRK-TV reported.
Someone who witnessed the shooting said the shooter fled the scene after the attack, police said.
Police arrested a suspect, 25-year-old Pedro Tello Rodriguez Jr, who is charged with engaging in deadly conduct, a third-degree felony. Online court records do not list an attorney for him.
Shearer said Washington, a high school senior from Round Rock, north of Austin, is one of her team’s stars and was born with only one lung.
“She’s really a huge face in the all-star cheerleading world,” Shearer said.
“She’s a mentor and role model to so many kids in this industry.
“She’s an amazing athlete, amazing kid, so everybody knows her and everybody’s praying for her.”
Washington has committed to competing for Baylor University’s acrobatics and tumbling team next year, and her and her Woodlands teammates were set to compete at the The Cheerleading Worlds in Orlando, Florida, this weekend.
Shearer said the team will now be “competing for her”.
The attack comes days after two other high-profile shootings that occurred after victims went to mistaken addresses.
