TX - Dr. Mark Hausknecht, 65, Physician to GHW Bush killed in bicycle drive-by shooting, Houston

"The doctor was traveling northbound on Main Street at the intersection with Holcombe Boulevard when the gunman passed him, Houston police said. Two blocks later, the gunman turned around on his mountain bike and fired at least two shots at Hausknecht, who immediately went down, as the shooter kept riding north.

The suspect remained at large Friday evening, police said. He was described as a clean-shaven white or Hispanic male, about 30 years old, who was wearing a gray warmup jacket, khaki shorts, a tan baseball cap and sunglasses. Police said he is about 5 feet 10 inches tall with a slender build."

https://www.chron.com/news/houston-...shooting-prompt-lockdown-at-Rice-13091308.php
 
"Hausknecht biked to work every day, said Kleiman. He said Hausknecht took exceptional care of himself and found biking to work relaxing.

At a street removed from the shooting, nurses and doctors in scrubs and white coats walked, biked and hopped off the rail to get to work on Fannin Street, a reminder of how populated the area is with foot traffic."

https://www.chron.com/news/houston-...shooting-prompt-lockdown-at-Rice-13091308.php
 
For those who know about guns, how difficult would it be to hit someone on a bike while the shooter was also riding a bike? Would this take some skill or is it something someone without training/practice/experience could do easily?
 
For those who know about guns, how difficult would it be to hit someone on a bike while the shooter was also riding a bike? Would this take some skill or is it something someone without training/practice/experience could do easily?
Not that easy. Police miss a lot of shots even when they don't ride on a bike, and they have training.
Shooting and hitting a moving target is obviously harder than hitting a stationary target. Other people in the area didn't get hit so I am guessing the shooter knew what he was doing.
 
This happened VERY close to where I live. And I can attest to that being a very busy area, especially that time of day. I also highly doubt this was random. Texas is under a strong heat wave lately with the heat index over 100 degrees and the shooter was wearing a jacket. Not to mention he was also on a bike and seemed to be following the doctor.

What has thrown me off a bit was his wife’s statement today.
"After spending his adult life saving and prolonging the lives of others, my talented husband, Dr. Mark Hausknecht, had his life prematurely ended.

"'Senseless' has become a trite adjective to describe these tragedies, but what IS senseless is the misguided notion that any society with more guns is a safer society. When students cannot go to school without fear, and teachers need to arm themselves, what has this country come to?

"As a trained emergency medicine physician, I am no stranger to the devastating consequences of both intentional and accidental firearm use. Now my family and I have joined the ranks of the tens of thousands of other grieving Americans who lost innocent loved ones each year.

"So many have asked what can be done to help. While law enforcement has given you their focus on finding the criminal, I am asking you to use your vote and your voice to stem the tide of this growing public health epidemic. Write, email or tweet your Congressional Representative urging sensible gun laws. We owe it to future generations to leave a safer environment.

"Our family would like to thank law enforcement, the medical community, and so many colleagues, patients, friends and neighbors who have reached out to support us during this difficult time. Mark loved this city. To honor him -- work hard, be responsible, patient, tolerant and compassionate."

It seems to me that she believes it was a random act by somebody who had access to a gun that shouldn’t of. But IMO, this seems like a purposeful act targeting the physician.

ETA: It throws me off too that she isn’t pleading for the public to come forth with information to help find the suspect. But again I could just be reading the statement wrong. She states “While law enforcement has given you their focus on finding the criminal, I am asking you to use your vote and your voice to stem the tide of this growing public health epidemic.”. Maybe she figures since LE is asking the public for information she can focus on gun control. But for all we know, this guy may of had a clean background, no other issues and was able to obtain a gun legally.
 
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Here’s a preliminary map of what I understand happened. The suspect and Dr. Hausknecht were riding on main ( blue line). Once they passed the major intersection at Holcombe, the suspect rode past (Green line) Dr. Hausknecht and two blocks later turned around and shot him at the block of 6600 Main. The suspect was last seen heading west on Southgate Blvd ( red line).
 

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His wife is an MD in an emergency room who likely saw a lot of gun injuries so the subject of gun control is likely something she was passionate about even before her husband was killed in such a manner.
Lots of guns in Texas. Likely the gun control issue was something she was concerned about before this happened.
As for being a random murder or not, we don't know at this time. Did they have some sort of altercation while riding their bikes and this was a road rage case?
Seems unlikely but who knows.
 
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This happened VERY close to where I live. And I can attest to that being a very busy area, especially that time of day. I also highly doubt this was random. Texas is under a strong heat wave lately with the heat index over 100 degrees and the shooter was wearing a jacket. Not to mention he was also on a bike and seemed to be following the doctor.

What has thrown me off a bit was his wife’s statement today.
"After spending his adult life saving and prolonging the lives of others, my talented husband, Dr. Mark Hausknecht, had his life prematurely ended.

"'Senseless' has become a trite adjective to describe these tragedies, but what IS senseless is the misguided notion that any society with more guns is a safer society. When students cannot go to school without fear, and teachers need to arm themselves, what has this country come to?

"As a trained emergency medicine physician, I am no stranger to the devastating consequences of both intentional and accidental firearm use. Now my family and I have joined the ranks of the tens of thousands of other grieving Americans who lost innocent loved ones each year.

"So many have asked what can be done to help. While law enforcement has given you their focus on finding the criminal, I am asking you to use your vote and your voice to stem the tide of this growing public health epidemic. Write, email or tweet your Congressional Representative urging sensible gun laws. We owe it to future generations to leave a safer environment.

"Our family would like to thank law enforcement, the medical community, and so many colleagues, patients, friends and neighbors who have reached out to support us during this difficult time. Mark loved this city. To honor him -- work hard, be responsible, patient, tolerant and compassionate."

It seems to me that she believes it was a random act by somebody who had access to a gun that shouldn’t of. But IMO, this seems like a purposeful act targeting the physician.

ETA: It throws me off too that she isn’t pleading for the public to come forth with information to help find the suspect. But again I could just be reading the statement wrong. She states “While law enforcement has given you their focus on finding the criminal, I am asking you to use your vote and your voice to stem the tide of this growing public health epidemic.”. Maybe she figures since LE is asking the public for information she can focus on gun control. But for all we know, this guy may of had a clean background, no other issues and was able to obtain a gun legally.


I found it to be unusual in the sense of her sounding less like devastation over her spouse and sounding more focused on generalized non-personal logistics. If it were myself I’m inclined to think that would be secondary to the personal (loss of spouse) aspect, regardless of the weapon of choice. But everyone has their own individual way of grieving. I agree, at this point it just doesn’t sound like she is dumbfounded over who would have done this.
 
His wife is an MD in an emergency room who likely saw a lot of gun injuries so the subject of gun control is likely something she was passionate about even before her husband was killed in such a manner.
Lots of guns in Texas. Likely the gun control issue was something she was concerned about before this happened.
As for being a random murder or not, we don't know at this time. Did they have some sort of altercation while riding their bikes and this was a road rage case?
Seems unlikely but who knows.

I found it to be unusual in the sense of her sounding less like devastation over her spouse and sounding more focused on generalized non-personal logistics. If it were myself I’m inclined to think that would be secondary to the personal (loss of spouse) aspect, regardless of the weapon of choice. But everyone has their own individual way of grieving. I agree, at this point it just doesn’t sound like she is dumbfounded over who would have done this.

I do want to add that I do not think she was personally involved in this. I haven’t quite heard a statement like this and like Gooddeeds mentioned , it seemed based on non personal logistics. It makes me wonder if she 1.) has information from LE that this was most likely a random shooting done by an unstable person in the area. Wrong place wrong time kind of thing. Or if 2.) she DOES have an idea of who could of done this and she knows this is a person that should of never had access to a gun.

Either way, I can’t imagine what would motivate someone to do something so awful to a 65 year old man who by all accounts, was a wonderful doctor and person.
 
So here are the possible scenarios I can come up with:

1. Random deranged killer
2. Revenge for family member death (patient of dr)
3. Affair (killed by partner of his paramour)
4. Spouse affair (killed by spouse’s paramour)
5. Hired hit for life insurance (spouse or other beneficiaries)
6. Mob or some other shady business retribution
7. Hired hit by spouse to move on with new lover

Am I missing anything?
 
So here are the possible scenarios I can come up with:

1. Random deranged killer
2. Revenge for family member death (patient of dr)
3. Affair (killed by partner of his paramour)
4. Spouse affair (killed by spouse’s paramour)
5. Hired hit for life insurance (spouse or other beneficiaries)
6. Mob or some other shady business retribution
7. Hired hit by spouse to move on with new lover

Am I missing anything?

I personally would be surprised if it were number 1 but I know we can’t rule it out at this point. The doctor seems to have been followed for a bit and was then killed by someone skilled with a gun who also covered up with a cap, jacket and sunglasses on a very hot day. Maybe it could also of been a case of mistake identity.
 
So here are the possible scenarios I can come up with:

1. Random deranged killer
2. Revenge for family member death (patient of dr)
3. Affair (killed by partner of his paramour)
4. Spouse affair (killed by spouse’s paramour)
5. Hired hit for life insurance (spouse or other beneficiaries)
6. Mob or some other shady business retribution
7. Hired hit by spouse to move on with new lover

Am I missing anything?
This might fit under #1 on the list as "random deranged killer," but another possibility is the killer and victim had a previous altercation on the bike route and the shooting was in revenge.

Just adding ideas to the table...

jmo
 

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