A Houston man who died after being brutally bashed and set on fire was targeted at random as part of a sick gang initiation, according to a report.
Esterrell Simpson, 18, a member of the Black Disciples street gang, had never met Carlos Hernandez, 30, when she allegedly took part in his slaying along with two fellow gang members in Houston on April 12.
Simpson confessed to a local activist, Quanell X, reported KHOU11.
“This was planned,” Quanell X told the station. “She began to describe to me how she was recording it on her phone while they were beating him and while he was on fire.”
Surveillance video shows Simpson walking with two other men, one holding a can of gas, along Witte Road on April 21, moments before Hernandez, an immigrant from El Salvador, was killed.
“She said they were all Black Disciple gang members,” said Quanell X.
“She said one of them was a Blood, who had just become a Black Disciple gang member and this was part of her initiation and his.”
Neighbors who heard Hernandez screaming ran out to the street and doused him with water, according to ABC13 in Houston. Police said he was almost unidentifiable due to his injuries.
Simpson, who is charged with murder after allegedly sparking the fire, was arrested in Louisiana in May.
One of her alleged accomplices, 24-year-old Maurice Eugene Hollis, was arrested Wednesday and charged with murder while the third suspect remains at large.
The trio had reportedly been on a week-long crime spree as part of their initiation.