HARRIS COUNTY, Texas – A family is desperate for answers after an 80-year-old Vietnam veteran died following an attack in a North Harris County grocery store parking lot on Dec. 6.
Earl Hollins had to be airlifted to the hospital where he died after the attack in the Food Town parking lot off FM 1960. According to court records, he had a brain bleed.
“Going from a phone call, to an airplane, into an ICU, to my father being gone, he’s dead, because someone decided to choose violence that day,” his daughter Chantal Cadmus said.
Harris County deputies arrested Anthony Boyce, 57, later that night after he took off from the scene. He was initially charged with aggravated assault before the charge was upgraded to murder.
“You run away and leave an elderly disabled veteran just [lying] there like garbage is just something that... How? How do you process that?” Cadmus said. “Laying on the ground, bleeding from his head, with a two-inch gash in the back of his head.”
Hollins was brain dead and died at the hospital, Cadmus said.
While investigators haven’t confirmed the timeline, she said it took medics more than an hour to arrive.
According to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, the 911 call came in at 12:57 p.m. on Dec. 6 but based on the caller’s initial information, it was recorded as a “Priority 2 Assault” which meant that it had a lower level of urgency.
Earl, a Vietnam veteran, was a remarkable man who touched so many lives. His murderer is out on bond. As we honor his memory, we need your help to support his family during this heart-wrenching time. Please share. https://t.co/3lTarBxfwp
— Jay Cadmus (@jay_cadmus) December 16, 2024
Cadmus said a bystander rushed to a nearby fire station to request that medics hurry to the scene.
When EMS and law enforcement arrived, an HCSO spokesperson said the incident was “reclassified” to an aggravated assault, which meant the situation had “increased severity.”
“He might still be here. The hour could have made such a difference,” Cadmus said.
Boyce, who’s a former Cy-Fair ISD substitute teacher, is now out of jail on a $200,000 bond, which Cadmus called “insane.”
She planned to visit him over the holidays, she said, but she’s now planning his funeral.
“It’s taking everything out of us to put smiles on our faces right now,” she said.
The sheriff’s office hasn’t provided an exact time in which EMS arrived at the scene and an attorney representing Boyce hasn’t responded to KPRC 2′s request for comment.
Records show Boyce was arrested in 2023 for an aggravated assault with a deadly weapon charge, but the apparent road rage case was dismissed earlier this year because of a “missing witness.” Prosecutors noted that it could be refiled if the victim comes forward and decides to prosecute.
Boyce isn’t due back in court until January.