Dad Killed As He Picks Up His Children For Christmas

HOUSTON, TX — A man was arrested on Christmas Day after he allegedly shot his girlfriend’s ex-husband to death when he arrived to pick up their children from her, police said. The shooting was reported at about 3 p.m. in the 200 block of Dominion Park Drive on Christmas Day.

According to investigators with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, 26-year-old Eric Burch went to the apartment complex to pick up his children, a 1-year-old and 7-month-old, from their mother for Christmas.

Not long after Burch arrived, he and the mother’s new boyfriend, Zacchaeus Mitchell, 22, got into a fight in the parking lot, deputies said.

During the fight, Mitchell got up off the ground, pulled out a gun and shot Burch in the chest, and fled in a silver car, deputies said. Burch was taken to Houston Northwest Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Residents at the apartment complex who heard the shooting were in shock. Apartment resident Kayla Byerley, who heard the shooting, looked out her window in time to see Mitchell driving off.

"I know that he is going to get what's coming for him for doing that and I just hope that he knows what he did wrong," Byerley told KPRC.

Mitchell was later arrested and charged with murder and is being held in the Harris County Jail in lieu of $30,000 bond. The shooting is still under investigation.

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