{"id":101191,"date":"2024-04-06T22:21:53","date_gmt":"2024-04-07T03:21:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=101191"},"modified":"2024-04-06T22:24:59","modified_gmt":"2024-04-07T03:24:59","slug":"101191","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=101191","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

‘Suspect’ and ‘victims’ staged robbery when armed bystander stepped in<\/a><\/p>\n

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — The northwest Houston robbery that preceded a fatal gas station shooting in January was staged, according to police.<\/p>\n

The Houston Police Department initially said a bystander witnessed Rasshauud Scott appearing to rob a couple at gunpoint at the gas station on\u00a0Ella Boulevard near the Beltway on Jan. 27<\/a><\/b>. He shot Scott as he attempted to flee.<\/p>\n

However, HPD has now said the couple and Scott were working together to stage a robbery so that the man and woman could file a report with the police and use their crime victim status to\u00a0apply for a U nonimmigrant status, or “U visa<\/a><\/b>.”<\/p>\n

“The person qualifies for a work permit while they’re waiting for a resolution of the case,” immigration attorney Silvia Mintz said.<\/p>\n

Police said they obtained text messages from Scott’s phone between him and a man named William Winfrey the night of the shooting.<\/p>\n

In one message, Winfrey writes to Scott, “It’s the usual gas station (expletive).”<\/p>\n

In another he writes, “When you done run make all the (expletive) to look real.”<\/p>\n

Investigators said they also found a selfie from one of the purported victims on Scott’s phone.<\/p>\n

Police said Winfrey and Scott staged numerous other similar robberies dating back to 2023 in a bid to help the alleged victims obtain visas.<\/p>\n

One took place at a northeast Houston gas station on Jan. 26 in which Scott pretended to rob a cashier at the store.<\/p>\n

Mintz said U visas come up a lot during discussions with potential clients.<\/p>\n

“They say, ‘OK, what would happen if somebody beat me up? Or if I was a victim of domestic violence?’ And of course, the answer is, ‘I cannot help you,'” Mintz said.<\/p>\n

Mintz added the schemes could backfire. If immigration officials learn someone has lied to obtain a U visa, they could be banned from the country permanently.<\/p>\n

“People don’t realize the big mess they’re getting into by lying and making things up,” Mintz said.<\/p>\n

ABC13 was unable to locate any criminal charges against the people who claimed to be victims in the Jan. 26 and Jan. 27 robberies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

‘Suspect’ and ‘victims’ staged robbery when armed bystander stepped in HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — The northwest Houston robbery that preceded a fatal gas station shooting in January was staged, according to police. The Houston Police Department initially said a bystander witnessed Rasshauud Scott appearing to rob a couple at gunpoint at the gas station on\u00a0Ella … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[78,80],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-darwin-awards","category-you-cant-make-this-up"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=101191"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101191\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101194,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101191\/revisions\/101194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=101191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=101191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=101191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}