Church pastor’s daughter shot in east Houston, stalking probe underway

A 19-year-old woman was shot outside her home in east Houston after returning from church, turning a quiet driveway in the Lindale Farms neighborhood into a late-night crime scene and sending deputies to the 2100 block of Hartwick Road near Aldine Westfield Road.

The Harris County Sheriff’s Office said the shooting happened around 9:37 p.m. on April 14. Investigators identified the suspect as 24-year-old Emanuel Marin and said he had been stalking the victim for a few days. Deputies also said Marin was a former church member who had been banned after making threats to staff, a detail that quickly widened the case beyond a neighborhood shooting into a church-related safety investigation.

The victim was the daughter of a pastor, and authorities said her boyfriend arrived in a separate car just as the attack unfolded. According to investigators, he heard gunshots, saw the woman being chased by a man dressed in black and then watched as Marin fired toward his vehicle. Fearing for the woman’s safety and his own, the boyfriend drove his car into Marin in an effort to protect her and stop the attack.

The woman was struck in the shoulder while trying to get away in her vehicle and later underwent emergency surgery. Later updates said she was expected to survive and was listed in stable condition after being hospitalized. Marin was also taken to a hospital after being hit by the boyfriend’s vehicle, then released into sheriff’s custody.

Marin was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and burglary of a habitation with intent to commit a felony. The case now sits at the intersection of stalking, church conflict and home-invasion fears, the kind of fast-moving violence that leaves neighbors in east Houston asking how a worship night ended with gunfire at a family’s front door.

It was not an isolated church threat in the Houston area. On April 7, a man was arrested after police said he brought a gun to a church service and threatened to kill a pastor, underscoring how congregations across Harris County have been confronting threats that spill from personal disputes into places meant to feel safe.