Police search for suspect after Sunnyside corner store shooting

A man was hospitalized in critical condition after he was shot inside the Cullen Food Mart in Sunnyside late Friday night.

Officers were called to the store in the 8900 block of Cullen Boulevard near Brinkley Street, close to Bellfort Avenue, at about 11:30 p.m. Friday. When they arrived, they found the victim with a gunshot wound to the head. Investigators did not yet know what led up to the shooting, and no arrests had been made.

Detectives were reviewing surveillance footage and other evidence as they worked to identify the suspect and reconstruct the moments before and after the gunfire. Police also asked the public for information. Investigators continued to search for whoever fled before officers reached the scene.

On Oct. 22, 2025, two women were killed after a fight spilled into the street in front of a food mart in the same 8900 block of Cullen Boulevard.

ABC13’s Safety Tracker counted 13 homicides in Sunnyside and surrounding neighborhoods over the past 12 months. Sunnyside is one of Houston’s historically Black communities and was platted in the early 1900s for African Americans, later annexed by Houston in 1956. City planning materials identify it as the oldest African-American community in south central Houston.

The city’s Sunnyside Super Neighborhood materials identify the area as Super Neighborhood 71 in Council District D. The Sunnyside Complete Communities profile places it within I-610 on the north, Sims Bayou on the south, Martin Luther King Boulevard on the east and Highway 288 on the west.

Sunnyside remained without basic city services such as running water, sewer, paved roads and drainage even after annexation.