A double murder occurred late Tuesday night in a Houston nursing home room shared by four men, according to local authorities. Police arrested Guillermo Correa on suspicion of beating two of his roommates to death. The weapon was allegedly Correa’s wheelchair armrest.
The incident occurred at the Lexington Place Nursing and Rehabilitation center shortly before midnight, police told local news outlets. The victims were identified as 74-year-old Antonio Acosta and 50-year-old Primitivo Lopez. A police spokesman said the 56-year-old Correa likely would be charged with capital murder.
The fourth roommate apparently was asleep during the assault and not harmed, according to news reports.
Acosta’s daughter, Irma Chavez, said that her father repeatedly complained about Correa, including on Tuesday, reported local CBS affiliate KWTX. The nursing home said, “she could move her father somewhere else,” according to KWTX. The KWTX report did not specify whether that meant to a different room or to a different facility.
The administrator had not returned a call from McKnight’s as of press time. In a statement, the facility offered condolences to the victims’ families, and it noted that Lexington is cooperating with investigators and cannot comment further.
Some family members of Lexington Place residents complained to the media that the facility did not inform them promptly after the incident.
Lexington Place is a 200-bed, for-profit facility under operational/managerial control of Preferred Care Inc., according to the federal government’s Nursing Home Compare website. Pinnacle Health Facilities GP II LLC has a general partnership interest.
In November, a nursing home resident in New York was arrested on charges that he beat his roommate to death with a wheelchair leg rest.
