East Texas

By KENNETH DEAN
Staff Writer

LONGVIEW — Police in Longview are investigating the city’s eighth murder this year.

Kevin Brownlee, public information officer for the Longview Police Department, said officers were called to the Newgate United Methodist Church Mission in the 200 block of Mobberly Avenue and found a dead woman on the ground beside a bench.

Brownlee said the 42-year-old woman appeared to be the victim of a shooting and was declared dead at the scene by Gregg County Justice of the Peace Sam Lawson, who ordered the woman’s body sent to Southeast Texas Forensics in Tyler for an autopsy.

The woman’s name has not been released pending notification of next of kin.

According to the mission’s Web site, Newgate began in 1990 and serves the spiritual, physical, social, emotional, educational and financial needs of the homeless population in Longview and the surrounding area.

Anyone with information about this shooting should call Detective Doug Brinkley with the Longview Police Department at 903-237-1029 or Gregg County Crime Stoppers at 903-236-STOP (7867).

Kent McKeever, Newgate United Methodist Mission pastor, talks about the Wednesday morning homicide of a homeless woman who was a regular at the Longview shelter. The woman was found lying next to a bench near the building by police officers responding to shots fired.
(Staff Photo By Jaime R. Carrero)