Charges Filed in Doctor’s Shooting Outside Houston Grocery Store

HOUSTON - A man is charged with attempted capital murder in the shooting of a young Houston doctor.

Dr. Stephanie Wuest was alert and in stable condition Friday morning. The shooting happened the night before outside a grocery store that's popular with people who work in the Texas Medical Center.

Dr. Wuest, 28, is a first year resident at Baylor College of Medicine. Last year she married a fellow Baylor resident. On their wedding website, Wuest wrote her goal is to provide health care for the less fortunate.

Thursday night, Houston Police say Anthony Bell, 40, shot Wuest several times while trying to rob her.

"I'm disturbed and scared because I thought this area was pretty safe considering it's part of the Med Center," said Palwasha Sharwani, a resident.

Wuest was walking out of the store on Old Spanish Trail at Cambridge around 6:30 p.m. when the suspect surprised her. Witnesses saw Wuest struggling with him. They ran inside to alert Vernon Matthews, an off duty Harris County Precinct 6 deputy constable working security.

"So when he ran out there he heard gun shots and ran that direction and saw a lady had been shot," said Constable Victor Trevino.

Wuest was brought to Ben Taub General Hospital, where she works, in critical condition.

Witnesses guided the deputy constable to the suspect. Matthews detained Bell and found a gun in his pocket. Trevino says the suspect tried to fool his deputy.

"The suspect was trying to distract him by trying to say he was just there trying to help the victim and someone else did this," said Trevino.

The deputy constable went to the hospital to wish Wuest and her family the best. A Baylor spokeswoman says the family is focused on the doctor's recovery.

Bell has a lengthy criminal record dating back to 1989. He has convictions for drug charges, auto theft and assualt but nothing as violent as attempted capital murder. Bell is in the Harris County Jail on no bond.