Ashlee Long, Houston, Texas realtor shot dead during skirmish with Dallas Mercedes driver, Kendrick Finch, as man is refused reduced bail during bond hearing as he now faces murder charges.
Define wrong place, wrong time? A night out on the town led to tragedy after a 28 year old Houston area realtor was gunned down last month after a random interaction with a Mercedes driver escalated into gun violence.
Ashlee Long was shot dead during the early morning hours of April 5 after a sudden skirmish erupting after her boyfriend casually touching a White Mercedes as the pair drove along a downtown Dallas street.
The incident prompted Kendrick Finch, the driver of the vehicle to get out of the luxury sedan while holding a 9mm handgun and proceeding to confront the couple.
The boyfriend, William Kistler in turn went for his gun inside Long’s purse, as Long pleaded with him to desist, leading to a shoot out resulting in the couple both being shot. The man survived the ordeal, Long did not.
Kistler was able to fire off three rounds, with Finch retreating into his vehicle and fleeing the scene.
During a Wednesday bond reduction hearing for Finch, who know faces murder charges in Long’s death, the victim’s relatives were played surveillance video which had captured the unfolding episode, showing Finch alighting out of his vehicle and brandishing his gun before firing at the couple.
During the hearing, the defendant’s lawyer had claimed his client had responded to a ‘threat’ and was ‘defending’ himself.
‘When (Kistler) takes those steps towards my client, my client has every right under the law to defend himself,’ the attorney lawyer stated, despite Finch fleeing from the scene.
The attorney maintained that Kistler was to blame for the shooting. A point of view the victim’s attorney challenged.
‘We know for sure Ashlee Long would be alive today except for William Kistler. William Kistler is the one who started everything that night it showed in the video,’ Long’s attorney stated in court.
‘We don’t have the toxicology report yet of these two individuals, but I can bet where that’s going to end up.
‘He’s trying to fight random people on the street and then my client’s car. Driving by at a normal rate of speed gets hit.’
On the day of the shooting, Long was traveling from her home in Houston to Dallas for a networking trip.
She died in the hospital from multiple gunshot wounds shortly after the shooting.
Finch called Dallas Police the day after the shooting and told detectives that he was involved and promised to come in.
When he didn’t, an arrest warrant was issued the following day, and on April 18, he turned himself in.
‘I feel dead inside. She was my everything. A night out on the town and just being in the wrong place at the wrong time,’ her mother, Michelle Long, told CBS News Texas in April.
‘I’m still in a fog. I just feel like I’m in a daze every day,’
Finch’s request for a bond reduction was denied by Judge Jennifer Balido.
He is being held on a $500,000 bond at the Dallas County Jail.
Finch’s trial is expected to begin early next year.
