A violent confrontation over a parking spot at the grocery store sent an 80-year-old disabled veteran to the hospital, Texas deputies and family members said.
On Dec. 7, the day after the fight, family members and deputies said Earl Hollins died of his injuries. He had been in a coma due to a severe head injury and was put on life support, his niece Elma Hollins Washington told KTRK.
“This devastating tragedy has shaken the very core of our own and extended family members,” Jay Cadmus, Hollins’ son-in-law, said in a Dec. 8 Facebook post.
Anthony Boyce, 57, attacked Hollins over a parking spot at Food Town in Houston, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Video footage viewed by investigators showed no indication that a fight was about to break out, deputies told KPRC.
Witnesses told deputies the two were acquaintances because they frequented the store, KPRC reported.
Boyce fled the scene after he hit Hollins, deputies said. He was arrested on Dec. 7 and charged with aggravated assault. Deputies said his charges could be upgraded.
Attorney information was not listed.
“I said, ‘My god, over a parking spot. You’re going to injure my uncle, and now, finally, he’s dead, and it was over a parking spot,’” Hollins-Washington told KTRK.
Boyce is being held in Harris County Jail on a $200,000 bond, according to jail records.
He is scheduled to appear in court on Jan. 14.
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