He drove from Houston to Arlington to kill someone. He shot the wrong man, police say
A Houston man who authorities say had “adversarial conversations” with an Arlington man drove from Houston to an Arlington apartment complex Monday. The suspect thought he saw the man he was looking for and opened fire, Arlington police said.
But Kendell Jerrell Morris killed the wrong person, according to an arrest warrant.
Robert Cooley III, 24, was gunned down Monday morning in the parking lot because he was a black man with dreadlocks, the only description that Morris had, according to the warrant released by Arlington police on Tuesday.
Morris had never met the man he intended to shoot, the warrant states.
Morris was arrested Monday afternoon in Madisonville near Houston by a trooper with the Texas Department of Public Safety. An AR-15 rifle was found inside of his car, the warrant says.
The 22-year-old Houston man was in the Madison County Jail on Tuesday awaiting extradition to Tarrant County, where he faces a charge of murder.
No other injuries were reported in the Monday morning shooting in the 300 block of Bardin Greene Drive in Arlington.
The warrant written by Arlington Detective Julia Hall gave this brief account of the fatal shooting:
Morris and an Arlington man had engaged in “adversarial conversations” over the phone in recent days.
The warrant did not provide details on those conversations.
Morris did not know what the Arlington man looked like, but he drove from Houston to kill him, according to the warrant. The only description Morris had was that he was a black man with dreadlocks.
On Monday morning, witnesses reported seeing a white 2008 Nissan Altima parked in a space at the apartment complex on Bardin Greene Drive in Arlington. The car was later identified as being owned by Morris.
One witness lived with the Arlington man who Morris intended to shoot, according to the warrant, noting the Houston man was at the right apartment complex where his intended target lived.
At some point, the witness saw Cooley walking in the parking lot. As she opened the door to enter her apartment, the witness heard several gunshots.
She turned and saw Cooley lying the parking lot, and the Nissan Altima was gone.
The witness told Arlington detectives she believed Cooley was shot because he resembled the man Morris had wanted to kill, according to the warrant.
