‘He could barely stand up,’ friend says of Fort Worth man murdered in wheelchair
For more than a year, Steven Evans had to depend on his wheelchair to get around Fort Worth.
A head injury in 2013 left the 52-year-old panhandler using a walker, but his physical condition deteriorated through the years until he couldn’t walk.
“He fell and hit his head in 2013,” said his friend Lisa Hubbard, of Springtown, in a recent interview with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “He was in a coma for weeks and when he woke up he didn’t know who he was.”
Evans also battled alcoholism, but he was a “sweet and kind” man, Hubbard said.
That’s why it continues to baffle Hubbard why anyone would open fire on Evans as he sat in his wheelchair in a parking lot last month on West Camp Bowie Boulevard.
After he was found in the parking lot on the night of July 13, Evans was rushed to a local hospital, but he died from multiple gunshot wounds.
“He wouldn’t hurt a fly,” Hubbard said. “He could barely stand up.”
Just days after the July 13 homicide, Fort Worth detectives released photographs of a truck caught on video surveillance in the area of the shooting. Detectives believed it could be the suspect’s vehicle.
The vehicle was a white Ford F-150 extended cab pickup. The truck had damage to its driver’s side and rust on the top portion of the cab.
As of this week, no one had been arrested in the homicide.
Evans’ fiance, Doris Smith of Keller, still can’t believe he was shot to death.
“He was always saying, ‘Don’t let the chair fool you’, but he wasn’t a fighter,” Smith said. “At first, I thought he was hit by random gunfire, and that he had been at the wrong place, wrong time.”
But Smith now believes Evans was the target.
“He was always out in the parking lot panhandling for money to buy beer and cigarettes,” said Smith, who also must use a wheelchair. “Something happened that led someone to shoot him.”
Born and raised in Tarrant County, Evans worked general labor jobs for most of his life, taking care of his parents in Lake Worth when they got older.
The head injury in 2013 forced him to live with his family in Lake Worth, but he moved to a nursing home when his father had to be taken to a nursing home.
Evans’ stay at the nursing home was brief as he ran out of money, and that led to his life on the street, at homeless shelters and with friends.
“He never had much money, but he always tried to give his friends birthday cards,” Hubbard said. “He was a very sweet man.”
Evans had been staying with a friend in Fort Worth on the night he was killed, but he had left the residence.
No one knows why Evans ended up in a parking lot on Camp Bowie Boulevard.
Hubbard said someone may have thought Evans was being too aggressive panhandling.
“He didn’t go out and pick fights,” Hubbard said. “He didn’t deserve what happened to him.”
Anyone with information should call Fort Worth police at 817-392-4334 or email ernest.pate@fortworthtexas.gov.
This story was originally published August 19, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
