Uber driver charged in death of Houston pastor

An Uber driver has been arrested in the June death of Houston pastor Rev. Ronald K. Mouton Sr. of East Bethel Missionary Baptist Church.

Mouton was shot and killed during a possible road rage incident on the Gulf Freeway at Gould Road on June 24.

According to the Harris County District Clerk’s Office, Deshawn Longmire, 23, has been charged with murder and is currently being held in Harris County Jail.

Witnesses said they saw Longmire, who was driving for Uber in his black Honda sedan with peeled window tint, arguing with Mouton, who was driving a white BMW, at a stoplight on the Gulf Freeway frontage road. Neither driver exited the vehicle at the time of the argument, investigators said.

Witnesses told police that, when both vehicles started moving, Longmire “stretched his arm out of the driver window with a pistol in his hand” and allegedly shot Mouton. Longmire then took off.

Surveillance video from Pusch and Nguyen Injury Lawyers showed Pastor Mouton crashing his vehicle at a curb. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Further investigation revealed that Longmire was a person of interest in connection to Mouton’s death, and records from his Uber account showed that he was in the area at the time of the shooting, according to documents. A man has been arrested and charged in connection to the death of a Houston pastor.

Mouton was shot and killed in an apparent road rage incident back in June.

Longmire’s vehicle was identified by a witness following the road rage shooting. According to court records, Longmire said no one uses his vehicle except for him, but that he was not in the area at the time of the shooting. But phone records and Uber app could confirm his whereabouts.

Longmire was taken into custody and his bond was set at $500,000 on Saturday.

Uber says no passengers were in the vehicle at the time of the shooting and that Longmire’s access to Uber was removed once they were aware of the investigation. 

The family of Ronald Mouton Sr. said he has been a pastor for 32 years in the community. He will be remembered as a man who touched many lives.

His longtime friend Bishop James Dixon said Mouton’s family is still grieving.

“For them, this is at least some relief but they’re still going through, they’re asking the public for prayer and privacy. But for all of us, we’re hopeful that justice is done. The family wants justice to be done.” 

“There are thousands of people within a five-mile radius of East Temple Church,” Dixon told us back in June. “Ronald Mouton has been a blessing to that community.”

Dixon said he grew up with Mouton and knew him all his life. He issued a statement on behalf of the famil:

“We are grateful for all the love and concern the community continues to express. The horrific loss of our beloved, Rev. Dr. Ronald Mouton, Sr. is painful beyond words. We are still grief-stricken over this senseless tragedy. We want the man who took his life to understand the seriousness of his crime. He took the life of a husband, a father. Our confidence and hope is in the proficient work the of police. We also hope the work of the entire criminal justice system is done thoroughly and that justice is duly served. We understand the public interest in this case, but we are not ready to speak publicly. We have authorized our trusted family friend, Bishop James Dixon, to interact with media on our family’s behalf. Thank you for respecting our need for privacy as we seek to heal from this traumatizing circumstance.” 

  City of Houston calls inaugural gun buyback event a success

The city of Houston’s first annual gun buyback event drew hundreds of people on Saturday.

Lines of cars could be seen wrapped around the block at Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church in southeast Houston where the event was held. Officials collected 845 guns and say they gave out nearly $100,000 in gift cards throughout the event.

“I got a shotgun and a .32,” said Marvin Washington. 

“It’s an old .22, but it’s like 50 years old, but it’s been laying around,” said Brian Carr.  

Community members surrendering their firearms had different back stories but shared one common goal.  

“Man, it is so crazy out here. The more guns we get off the streets the better it is, trying to get something positive done,” said Washington.  

“It’s too much crime going right now. We just thought we could do whatever we can to help,” said Carr.  

That’s exactly what city leaders are hoping to accomplish.

“We used best practices to plan and hold today’s event. I did not know what to expect, and the turnout was overwhelming,” said Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner. “The turnout demonstrates there are too many guns on our streets, and people want to get them out of their possession. The gun buyback is not the only solution, but we can and will make our streets safer and help reduce gun violence.”

The don’t ask, don’t tell buyback program is one of the latest efforts under Mayor Turner’s “One Safe Houston” initiative to combat violent crime. The event was put on in collaboration with the Houston Police Department and Commissioner Rodney Ellis.  

“This 9-millimeter is one of the guns that’s been taken in, we’ve taken in ghost guns, rifles, automatics. The program is working, gift cards being handed out,” Mayor Turner said.  

For each gun surrendered, gift cards up to $200 dollars were given out.  

The overwhelming turnout also drew out people trying to buy guns from those in the line, something Mayor Turner directly addressed.  

“There were some people going up and down the lines saying we will pay you more than the city and the county are willing to pay you, with no background checks, and mind you, it’s not necessarily illegal and that’s a loophole in the process,” he said.  

The setback couldn’t overshadow the program’s success. 

“I knew it was going to be a lot but even I didn’t think this many people on the first time,” said Houston Police Chief Troy Finner.  

City leaders say another gun buyback event is already in the works. 

An Uncommon Flow: Common performs with Houston Symphony

“Common with the Houston Symphony” was a featured program on the Houston Symphony’s summer series that drew fans from all over the metro area to attend. Houstonians had the rare opportunity to witness a hip-hop performance accompanied by a live orchestra—not a band, but an orchestra. Yes, the classical instrumentation was present: woodwinds, brass, percussions and strings, along with the hip-hop icon Common.

Common collaborated with Steven Reineke, who conducted the live musical arrangements for the two sold-out shows at the Hobby Center. The diverse audience enjoyed the motif of melodies, rhythms and harmonies, all intertwined with the thought-provoking lyrics of a conscientious Black man.

“Common is using his musical platform to bring people with diverse racial backgrounds but similar social ideologies together for the common good of our nation, and the good of our global communities,” said Tonya Sykes, event attendee. “I was so surprised to see so many non-Black people here.”

“The performance was absolutely dope,” said professional musician, educator and artist Ikechi Ojore. “I’m not usually at a loss for words, but simply put, it was amazing.”

Additionally, Common and his team hosted intimate meet and greets each night after the shows interacting with some of Houston’s power players to share and discuss the opportunities to team up with his non-profit Common Ground and his newest social project The Stardust Kids.

https://youtu.be/3pCfbRLN5ck

Common Ground was created in 2002 by Dr. Mahalia Hines and Common to provide leadership and mentoring support to at-risk high school populations in his hometown of Chicago. Programming includes Window of Opportunity (WOO) Academy, an entity that addresses freshmen year transitions by providing students with the tools to be successful learners. 

Common Ground’s Dreamers and Believers Program exposes students to fine arts career paths and college readiness mentorship. During the meet and greet, there were unconfirmed whispers of Common Ground expanding to Houston.

The Stardust Kids is an incubator collective for emerging artists and artistic entrepreneurs that encourages, supports and develops the raw talent of youth in the program. One of the core goals of the collective is to teach members how to incorporate social justice issues (and any other important issues they chose) into the expression of their art.

Common formerly known as Common Sense, is best known for his conscientious rap since he dropped his first album “Can I Borrow a Dollar” in 1992. With over 20 years in the entertainment sector, Common has continued to reinvent himself by portraying diverse roles in television and films, performing voiceover roles in animation movies, executive producing the Netflix drama “Burning Sands” and the Showtime urban drama “The Chi,” all while maintaining his commitment to national social justice issues.

Common won an Oscar for the song “Glory” (with John Legend), a Grammy for “Love of My Life (An Ode to Hip Hop)” and an NAACP award for his role in “Selma.”

His current album, “A Beautiful Revolution Part 2,” is a poetic call to community activism amid jazzy tones, fast-paced R&B tempos and Latin-flavored guitar chords. Common brings attention to social, racial and economic injustices in the Black community with cuts like “Courageous,” “A Place in This World” and the title track “A Beautiful Revolution.” 

If there was a common theme that tied all his songs performed with the Houston Symphony together, it was reflected in one of Common’s own lyrics: “Remember your light when the word seems shady.”

Black man goes viral for response to son being called n-word

A Dillards employee in Texas identified only as Homer, is one of the newest members of the unemployed ranks after being fired for calling a Black man’s son the n-word.

Homer, an employee at the Dillards at Northpark in Dallas, was filmed by onlookers as the father, Muhammad Karim, calmly read Homer up and down, and then up again, in a manner with such cool that the interaction, caught on cell phone, has been viewed over a million times.

How was Karim able to maintain his composure? His faith.

“The Prophet Muhammad said, ‘Don’t be angry, don’t be angry, don’t be angry,” Karim told a reporter from the Dallas CBS affiliate station Channel 11. “But I’ll be honest with you, I was angry. I was livid.”

However, most viewers of the video could not pick up on Karim’s anger because of the calm manner in which he held Homer, a Dillards employee of over 20 years, accountable for his actions.

Karim was shopping with his 10-year-old son in the Dallas department store while other customers overheard Homer calling Karim’s son a “f—ing ni—er.” An unidentified individual captured the aftermath on camera showing Karim confronting the now unemployed Dillards employee.

https://youtu.be/xrZBRCthwLM

“It’s unacceptable, you shouldn’t do that. You don’t know the impact of what you’ve done to my son. But maybe you were unaware,” said Karim.

Homer stood looking bewildered and dumbfounded as Karim continued his read.

“You shouldn’t be speaking that way, period. If you know that, why do that, man?”

In an attempt to justify calling Karim’s son out of his name, Homer blamed a hurt leg as the cause of his use of the n-word. I know. Make it make sense.

“You hurt your leg, so you said f—-ing n——-? Treat human beings with respect and morals and values. Now I have to go home and correct my 10-year-old not to be a damn idiot,” added Karim.

The video was originally posted nearly a week ago, and has garnered thousands of online commenters applauding Karim for keeping his composure throughout the incident.

“God bless this young Black king for his level of maturity,” one person wrote. “He sure (was) raised with love and values.”

Keeping his cool is one thing, but Karim also kept it real when he told Homer had it been another day, and Karim had come into the store in another state of mind, “It wouldn’t be a cop, it wouldn’t be a security guard, it wouldn’t be nobody to stop me from getting on your ass if I wanted to.”

Dillards released a statement this week that served as a response to Homer’s behavior.

“The allegations made against our former employee were promptly investigated, found to be in clear violation of our standards, and his employment with Dillard’s was immediately terminated.”