a young man\u2019s life was cut short in a shooting near a METRO bus stop<\/a>.<\/p>\nAccording to Houston police, the victim was sitting at a bus stop near N. Main St. and 34th St. on the night of Aug. 16. Investigators said he started talking with another man, but he then started running away.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The victim was on FaceTime with his girlfriend at the time. When the connection dropped, police said the girlfriend tracked his phone\u2019s location and found his body in a nearby grassy area.<\/p>\n
Loved ones have identified the man who was shot and killed as 23-year-old Nicholas Hood. Dozens of family members, friends and coworkers gathered Sunday night for a balloon release at the historic Jackson\u2019s Barbershop in Houston\u2019s Independence Heights neighborhood, where Hood worked. Many held purple balloons and wore purple shirts, which the family told KHOU 11 was Hood\u2019s favorite color.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is one of my best employees,\u201d Jackson\u2019s Barbershop owner Johnie Jackson said while speaking to the crowd who came out for the balloon release.<\/p>\n
Jackson told KHOU 11 that Hood had only worked for him for about six months. But his work ethic and positive personality made him an instant favorite.<\/p>\n
\u201cNever met a barber like that. Great. Professional. Had principles, morals, values. I called him the MVP. I\u2019ll never get another one like him. He\u2019s one in a million,\u201d Jackson said.<\/p>\n
Jackson added that Hood was extremely selfless and made an impact even beyond the barbershop and touched the lives of so many in the community.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe may have not cut everybody\u2019s hair, but he\u2019s just that professional. He would give the homeless people haircuts. I can go on and on and on,\u201d Jackson said.<\/p>\n
KHOU 11 also spoke with Hood\u2019s grandfather, Bueaford Smiley. Smiley said he wants Hood to be remembered as a giving person who always wanted to help people.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny time you saw him, he had a smile on his face, and he just wanted to make people happy,\u201d Smiley said. \u201cYou couldn\u2019t ask for a better grandson.\u201d<\/p>\n
Photos of Hood and purple flowers were placed at his barber\u2019s chair and at a makeshift memorial outside the barbershop.<\/p>\n
Houston police told KHOU 11 that there are no updates to the case as of Sunday evening, and they had no suspect description to share. Hood\u2019s family said they want justice and are urging whoever shot and killed him to turn themselves in.<\/p>\n
\u201cClosure is what we want. We want closure, and if they\u2019re out there, they know what they did. So, closure is what we need,\u201d Smiley said.<\/p>\n
HPD is asking anyone with any information about the shooting to contact Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS (8477) or submit a tip online.<\/p>\n
Got a news tip or story idea? Text it to us at 713-526-1111.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Loved ones identified the victim as 23-year-old Nicholas Hood. They gathered Sunday night for a balloon release at…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":173378,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5130],"tags":[4345,358,3187],"class_list":{"0":"post-173377","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-houston","9":"tag-texas","10":"tag-tx"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115087398912408834","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}