Murder in Newport

Sheriff's deputies work the crime scene on Lighthouse Street in Newport.

By LEWIS SPEARMAN

CROSBY– A man was found killed by a gunshot wound to the head inside his relatively new home on Jan. 30 in the 17000 block of South Lighthouse.

Harris County Sheriff’s Homicide Detective Russel Coleman confirms that Christopher Harrell, 32, was found by his mother and father when they went to check on his welfare. The couple had gone to the victim’s house following his supervisor telling his mother that Harrell did not report to work.

Harris County ESD#5 Paramedics received a call at about 10:50 a.m. that Thursday and determined that the victim was deceased.

Law Enforcement sources indicate two shell casings were found on the floor in the house.

A gun safe was found to be open inside the location but the shell casings did not matched any of the guns found at the home.

Detective Coleman would not confirm the number of casings found nor would he indicate the number of wounds on the victim’s body. The detective did confirm that Harrell had lived in the home since October.

According to Coleman, “We are conducting a thorough investigation of this case. At this time we are not close to closing it. We have good leads. We have located all of the man’s friends and they have been very cooperative. We are confident that we will solve this one, eventually.”

Neighbors expressed shock that the quiet and rapidly developing street would be the scene of a violent crime.