The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 94, No. 108, Ed. 1 Thursday, June 5, 2014 Page: 1 of 10
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Covering East Harris County, Chambers £ County and Southwest Liberty County www.baytownsun.com
Visiting man shot in Mont Belvieu motel parking lot
BY MARK FLEMING
mark.fleming@baytownsun.com
A Jonesboro, Texas, man was hospital-
ized in serious condition after being as-
saulted and shot in a Mont Belvieu motel
parking lot Tuesday night, police report.
Mont Belvieu Police Chief Virgil Bias-
del said the man, whose name was not re-
leased, was jumped and beaten, then shot,
by three men about 10:30 p.m., shortly
after he and his mother checked in to the
Super 8 Motel in the 9000 block of High-
way 146.
Blasdel said police do not know what
led to the attack, but the investigation is
in its early stages. Police released a se-
curity photo of the suspects’ vehicle in
an attempt to get help from the public in
identifying the assailants.
Blasdel said police responding to the
call were told that the man and his mother
had recently arrived at the motel, and the
2 5-year-old had returned to their vehicle
to get items out of it.
A few minutes later, the mother told po-
lice, her son returned to the room and told
her he had been attacked and shot.
The injured man told police he had
gotten soft drinks out of his vehicle, then
was approached by the three men, who
attacked him and beat him until he fell to
the ground.
When he got up and ran back toward
his room, he said, he was shot in the back.
The attacking men were identified as
being black, but no detailed description
was provided.
SEE SHOOTING • PAGE 6
Contributed photo
Mont Belvieu police are looking for infor-
mation to help them locate this vehicle,
believed to be used in a shooting incident
about 10:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Super 8
Motel in the 9000 block of Highway 146.
Baytown Sun photo by Robert Chambliss
Barbers Hill senior pitcher Randi Rupp was named the Gatorade Texas Softball Player of the Year after going 27-1 in the
circle and leading the Lady Eagles to the 4A State semifinals. Rupp is the first Gatorade Texas Softball Player of the Year
to be chosen from Barbers Hill High School. See full coverage in Sun Sports.
Ike Dike project gets support
BY MI6HAEL GRAGZYK
The Associated Press
LA PORTE, Texas —
An alliance of Southeast
Texas government officials
and business leaders on
Wednesday embraced the
idea of building a near-
ly 60-mile-long barrier of
covered concrete dunes and
water gates along the up-
per Texas coastline to ease
damage from hurricane
storm surges.
The Bay Area Coastal
Protection Alliance said
the levees and flood gates
designed by a professor at
Texas A&M University at
Galveston — and dubbed
the “Ike dike” — would be
modeled after a successful
similar project constructed
about 25 years ago in The
Netherlands.
Ike refers to the Septem-
ber 2008 hurricane that
socked Southeast Texas,
killing about 50 people and
causing $35 billion in dam-
age, making it Texas’ cost-
liest storm.
“We can’t help but won-
der when the next hurricane
is going to hit the Hous-
ton-Galveston region,”
Bob Mitchell, president
of the Bay Area Houston
Economic Partnership,
said. “What we learned
most from Ike is it’s not the
wind we must be concerned
about most, but the surge.”
William Merrell, a ma-
rine scientist at Texas
A&M-Galveston, has been
pushing his idea for several
years since Ike. It would be
a series of levees and gates
from High Island, east of
Galveston, and west to San
Luis Pass, extending the
protection of the Galves-
ton Seawall erected in the
aftermath of the great 1900
storm, where more than
5,000 people were killed. It
remains the nation’s worst
loss of life in a natural di-
saster.
The gates would be used
at Galveston Bay, on the
Bolivar Peninsula where
homes were wiped out by
Ike, and at San Luis Pass.
Merrell said the first
hurdle is to complete a
cost-benefit study, which
could be complete a year
from now. Then the pro-
posal could go to the Army
Corps of Engineers, a pro-
cess that could take years,
or a legislative route that
could cut the time consid-
erably. That was the path
for New Orleans, where
the images of the devasta-
tion from Hurricane Ka-
trina spurred Congress to
approve money to rebuild
flood protection.
“What we’re hoping for
SEE PROJECT • PAGE 6
Redus lawyer:
UIW response
a media ploy
BYELESKA AUBESPIN
eleska.aubespin@baytownsun.com
Houston attorney Brent
Perry can’t understand
why a San Antonio uni-
versity is questioning
official reports filed by
a police department and
medical examiner’s of-
fice in the case of Robert
Cameron Redus.
The Bexar County
medical report sheds light
on how close Universi-
ty of the Incarnate Word
campus officer Cpl. Chris
Carter was to Redus when
he fatally shot the college
student in December.
The police report,
among other things, in-
dicates what position Re-
dus’ bullet-riddled body
was found when officers
from Alamo Heights Po-
lice Department arrived
at the scene.
But Perry, who rep-
resents Valerie and Mick-
ey Redus on behalf of
their slain son, guesses
that UIW’s doubts about
the reports - and its law-
yers’ vivid description of
what happened to Cam-
eron - is part of a media
ploy.
“What stuck out to me
is that they went into great
detail about Cameron’s
actions but failed to talk
about the officer’s mis-
takes, such as not calling
for backup and initiating
arrest without obtaining
identification,” said Perry,
who is a Baytown native.
“I think they were writ-
ing for the media because
they are not willing to
REDUS
talk to the
media,”
Perry said.
“So this is
a way of
telling their
story but I
think it will
backfire.”
The San
Antoni o
law firm representing
UIW, Beirne, Maynard &
Parsons, L.L.P, referred
questions to Debra Del
Toro, UIW’s director of
public relations.
“We have no statements
regarding the response at
this time,” Del Toro said
Wednesday.
Questions about, or
rather denials to, allega-
tions made in the police
and medical examiner
reports are outlined in
UIW’s legal response to
a wrongful death law-
suit filed in May by the
Baytown couple.
In a document filed
in the District Court of
Bexar County Monday,
lawyers for UIW said the
university is not liable for
Redus’ death and that of-
ficer Carter acted within
the scope of his capacity
and was in fear of his life
when he fired his hand-
gun.
Redus, 23, was shot and
killed Dec. 6 following an
early morning traffic stop
a few blocks from the San
Antonio college campus.
He was shot five times at
close range by Carter and
died at the scene.
SEE REDUS • PAGE 6
Sun columnist honored for longtime contributions
Large crowd for Bay Area Heritage Society tribute
BYELESKA AUBESPIN
eleska.aubespin@baytownsun.com
Mary Hartman Brown knows a lit-
tle bit about longtime Baytown Sun
journalist Wanda Orton.
As the young daughter of Sun pub-
lisher Fred Hartman, Brown often
wandered into the newsroom.
“Every summer, I worked at The
Baytown Sun but I use the word
‘work’ loosely,” Brown said during
the Bay Area Heritage Society at its
38th annual Gala at the Goose Creek
Country Club.
“I was about 12 years old and I
liked to people watch and I remem-
ber that Wanda was assigned me,”
Brown said. “That meant Wanda had
to clear a small portion of her desk
for me and she didn’t know what to
do with me I’ll tell you that, but I was
there to learn.
“And I learned more growing up
under the tutelage and mentorship
of Wanda than most teachers I had
for the rest of my education,” Brown
said. “She was a joy and my dad al-
ways called her Miss Wanda as a sign
of respect.”
Brown was among many who
shared stories at Tuesday night’s gala
on behalf of Orton, the guest of hon-
or for her contributions to Baytown
history.
Each year the organization recog-
nizes someone who is significant to
Baytown’s history, either as a histo-
ry-maker or a historian.
Orton has had a front seat to much
of Baytown’s history, joining the
staff of The Baytown Sun in 1952,
just four years after Baytown incor-
porated as a city.
When she started, Orton was a
Robert E. Lee high school student
working as a switchboard operator.
She eventually worked up to the se-
nior news position, serving as man-
aging editor from 1980 to her retire-
ment in 1994.
Her beloved column continues to
SEE ORTON • PAGE 6
Baytown Sun photo by Eleska Aubespin
From left are Elvera Martinez, Wanda Orton and Eugenia
Rios at the Bay Area Heritage Society’s 38th annual Gala
at Goose Creek Country Club. Martinez and Rios attended
Tuesday’s event in honor of Orton, who is a Baytown Sun
columnist and former managing editor.
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Bloom, David. The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 94, No. 108, Ed. 1 Thursday, June 5, 2014, newspaper, June 5, 2014; Baytown, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth745958/m1/1/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Sterling Municipal Library.