Texas Showboat Drive-In Theater Shooting Leaves One Dead

Deputies and local firefighters responded to a shooting at a drive-In theater in Hockley Texas, on Monday morning where a failed robbery attempt left one suspect is dead.

The manager of the theatre opened fire on two masked suspects who attempted to rob the theater on Monday morning, local news reported.

The incident happened around 2:30 a.m. at Showboat Drive-In theatre in Hockley. According to preliminary information, two men had sneaked into the theatre while it was still open.

They came out and started rummaging around for things assuming the theater was empty. However, two managers were still upstairs, finishing up their shift, when they heard some noise and decided to come down and check.

“While they were upstairs alone, they heard some rummaging or something going on downstairs. They came down and immediately found one male that was apparently hiding, possibly in the closet, some type of utility closet,” Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez told reporters.

It was then that a second suspect, who had a bat and was wearing gloves, confronted them. According to deputies, the suspect began hitting one of the managers with the bat forcing her to draw her gun and open fire.

"At least one of them had a bat and hit her a couple times. That's when she pulled her gun out (and opened fire),” the Harris County Sheriff's Office said.

The suspect was shot at least once and died at the scene. The other suspect took off running. Gonzalez said though suspect fled on foot, there could have been a car waiting for him in the parking lot. The search for the second suspect is underway.

“These folks are just trying to run a business out here— brings up nostalgia from here, I remember coming to a drive-in theater similar to this when I was growing up,” Gonzalez told CW39 Houston. “It’s pretty isolated out here, so they did what they needed to, to protect themselves.”