Bar owner calls customer a hero for fatally shooting 2 robbers

Two men were fatally shot by a customer after they attempted to rob a north Harris County bar early Saturday — the latest in a flurry of shootings in Houston this week.

Jenny O'Donnell, owner of EJ's Place, said four armed men came to her bar in the 16400 block of Kuykendall at Colwell, around 2:30 a.m.

O'Donnell, who was not there at the time of the incident, said a head bartender and waitress were closing up for the night when two men walked into the bar and demanded everyone get down on the floor. Two other men "lingered at the bar door," she said.

That's when a customer at the bar pulled his own gun and started shooting at the men, she said. The attempted robbers fired at least three rounds inside the bar, said O'Donnell.

"That man was a hero," said O'Donnell. "We could have had some bodies."

The men then turned around and ran out the door, O'Donnell said. One of the men died right outside the front door, while the other man died at the end of the bar's parking lot, she said.

The other two men and the unidentified customer with the gun fled the scene. Authorities are searching for them.

O'Donnell said the bar had cameras that were functioning at the time of the incident, and she is cooperating with the investigation.

This is at least the fourth serious shooting of the week in Houston. On Friday, a man was fatally shot at a south Houston mobile home park after an unidentified armed man got into a heated argument with another man who was visiting one of the mobile homes, police said.

A homeowner Thursday confronted three men breaking into his home and shot one of them, according to authorities.

On Tuesday, police shot and killed a man after the man got into a physical altercation and shot at police during a traffic stop, an HPD spokesman said.

The cases are unrelated and remain under investigation.