METRORail shooting: Judge sets $250K bond for man accused of shooting woman at Palm Center Station

By Charly Edsitty

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    HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — A man accused of shooting his friend in the head as she was getting off the METRORail at the Palm Center Station in southeast Houston appeared in court for the first time overnight.

A judge set 44-year-old Markeith Allison’s bond at $250,000. He’s charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon — a second-degree felony. He was arrested over the weekend.

The woman who was shot is still recovering in the hospital after the shooting last Wednesday, Dec. 28.

Police said Allison was out on bond for a theft charge from November 2022 and lives less than a mile away from the transit station.

Investigators said surveillance video shows Allison on a bike, waiting at the Palm Center Transit Station. Mary Kelly, 27, was on the light rail at the time.

The footage shows Allison get on and approach Kelly, police said. There was a shouting argument before Allison allegedly shot Kelly in the head.

According to charging documents, Kelly was rushed to the hospital. She reportedly told an officer she knew who shot her before she was placed in a medically-induced coma to undergo brain surgery.

Police put out images of the suspect and said they received tips from the public that led them to Allison.

Kelly’s family told ABC13 the suspect and Kelly were recent friends. They said he liked her, but he “wasn’t her type.”

“I’m going to deny state’s request to keep you at no bond. I’m going to set your bond at $250,000,” the judge said in probable cause court.

Kelly’s family said she is doing a little better in the hospital, but still has a long way to go in her recovery.

Since October, this shooting marked the sixth violent incident on or near METRORail’s line.

A 28-year-old woman was attacked at the Palm Center Station on Oct. 29. On Nov. 15, a man was beaten with a baseball bat by a group of men at the light rail stop at Fulton and Cavalcade. Another deadly incident took place on Nov. 21 after a man was stabbed multiple times in the torso onboard a METRORail. A man was grazed during a fight on Dec. 7 with about 17 people on the bus at the time, according to police. On Dec. 17, a suspect was shot, and an officer was injured after a shooting inside a METRORail train.

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