Atascocita shooting now a murder case after evidence review
Investigators first called it accidental. A week later, Jayden Crawford faced a murder charge after evidence showed multiple shots were fired inside an Atascocita bedroom.
A shooting in Atascocita that deputies first treated as accidental is now a murder case after investigators said evidence pointed to multiple gunshots inside an upstairs bedroom. Eighteen-year-old Jayden Crawford was charged Saturday, June 7, after court filings undercut his initial account that the gun had gone off by mistake.
The shooting unfolded early Wednesday, June 3, at a home on Spring Brook Pass Drive in the Humble and Atascocita area. Deputies were called around 1:18 a.m. to the residence, where 19-year-old Frederick Middleton had been shot in the head inside an upstairs bedroom. Investigators said roughly eight people were inside the home, including five people in the bedroom where the shooting happened.
Middleton was first taken to a nearby urgent care facility and then airlifted to Memorial Hermann Medical Center. He later died from his injuries. At first, deputies treated the incident as accidental, and two teenage girls told investigators the shooting was accidental, according to earlier reports.
That version changed as detectives reviewed the scene. Court documents and later reports say investigators found blood spatter and spent shell casings inside the home, along with evidence consistent with multiple gunshots fired in the bedroom. One report said the gun was fired multiple times; another said evidence indicated it was fired twice. A second firearm recovered at the scene had been reported stolen.
Crawford was first charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon before prosecutors upgraded the case to murder. Court documents also said he was on probation after pleading guilty to unlawfully carrying a weapon in a vehicle. He was due in court Monday after the murder charge was filed.
The case is a sharp reminder of how quickly a Harris County shooting can change once investigators, forensic evidence and witness statements are pulled together. The Harris County Sheriff's Office, founded in 1837, is the largest sheriff's office in Texas and serves more than 4.1 million residents across 1,788 square miles and 41 municipalities, which is why shootings in unincorporated areas like Atascocita often draw immediate county attention.
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