A reward of up to $15,000 is being offered for information in a murder that has shocked Houston. Nelson Beckett, a 90-year-old Navy veteran, was shot and killed outside an assisted living apartment complex on Saturday, KHOU 11 reports. Police say a suspect shot Beckett, stole his car, and ran him over as he drove away. The car was found a few miles away but the suspect, described as a Black male between 25 and 30 years old, is still at large, reports Fox 4. The office of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has added $10,000 to a $5,000 reward offered by Crime Stoppers, Houston Public Media reports.
"Texas will always support the brave men and women who answered the call to serve in our nation's military, and with the public's help we will capture the murderer and put them behind bars," the governor said in a statement. Beckett's daughter, Tami Freund, described her father as "the kindest, funniest man you'd ever meet." "He loved to make someone laugh and brighten their day," she said in a statement. "To him, everyone had value. He spent his days driving people to places who did not have a car. Driving them to doctors' appointments, FEMA, rehab, stores, etc., wherever they needed to go."
"Cases like this have a tendency to galvanize the entire city, the entire county, the entire state," Andy Kahan with Houston Crime Stoppers tells KHOU 11. He says that with a $15,000 reward, he hopes someone with information will have the "courage and the fortitude to step up to the plate."
- Steve Sandifer tells KPRC 2 he was in "total shock" when he heard his friend of 47 years had been murdered. He says Beckett, whose wife of 55 years died in 2010, was "a very loving man, a very caring man." He says Beckett told him about one of his most memorable experiences in the Navy. "He was on a ship when the Bikini Atoll bomb was detonated. He talked about all the guys getting on the deck of the ship, and they told them to turn their back to the, the island. Evidently, they were human guinea pigs to see what was going to happen. He remembered the light was very, very bright."
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