Star high school cheerleaders are shot after one accidentally got into the wrong car

Two All-Star high school cheerleaders were shot after one of them accidentally got into the wrong car in a parking lot in Elgin, Texas.

Payton Washington, 18, and Heather Roth were shot multiple times by a man who was in a vehicle that Roth accidentally got into when they tried to carpool home from practice.

Washington was hit in the leg and back and was airlifted to the hospital on April 17 after she “began throwing up blood” in the parking lot of an HEB supermarket.

Pedro Tello Rodriguez Jr, 25, was arrested and charged with lethal conduct, a third-degree felony, after the shooting.

All-Star cheerleader Washington suffered multiple organ damage and had her spleen removed — and is now expected to undergo additional surgeries, according to her coach.

Roth suffered an abrasion and was treated at the scene.

Payton Washington (pictured) was hit in the leg and back and airlifted to hospital on April 17 after she began “vomiting blood” on the spot

Heather Roth (pictured) got out of her friend’s car just after midnight and opened the door to what she thought was her own vehicle in the HEB parking lot. There was a man in the passenger seat – which caused her to panic, thinking there was a stranger in her car

Pedro Tello Rodriguez Jr, 25, was charged with lethal conduct, a third-degree felony, after the shooting

Roth explained that she got out of her friend’s car just after midnight and opened the door to what she thought was her own vehicle in the H.E.B. parking lot.

There was a man in the passenger seat – which caused her to panic, thinking there was a stranger in her car.

She quickly got back into her friend’s car, but the man whose vehicle she had tried to get in approached them.

Roth rolled down her window to apologize for the confusion, but the man then threw up his hands and started firing at them.

According to an affidavit, the HEB manager witnessed the gunman “shoot several times at the vehicle” before fleeing.

Payton Washington is a senior in a Round Rock high school and was due to attend Baylor University this year on a scholarship.

The ordeal has been described as a “senseless and arbitrary act of violence” by her Woodlands Elite Generals cheerleading squad, who GoFundMe to cover her medical expenses.

According to Heather’s mother Alice, a total of four girls were in the car when the gunman opened fire.

The gunman left “the passenger side of the car riddled with bullet holes.”

The other two cheerleaders are locally named as Kiana and Genesis.

Police said: ‘Information suggests an altercation took place in the parking lot of H.E.B. and multiple shots were fired at a vehicle.

“Two occupants of the vehicle were hit by gunfire. One victim was treated at the scene and released.

“The other suffered serious injuries and was flown by helicopter to hospital, where they remain in critical condition.”

All-Star cheerleader Payton Washington suffered multiple organ damage and had her spleen removed — and is now expected to undergo additional surgeries, her coach says

Payton Washington, left, was described as “literally an icon in the all-star cheerleading world”

Lynne Shearer, the owner of Woodlands Elite Cheer, told Fox 7, “It was a harrowing night for all four of those girls.”

Speaking of Washington, she added: “She was literally born with one lung so from the very beginning as a baby she wasn’t even expected to survive let alone excel in athletics so she already has a lot of things surpassed.

“She is literally an icon in the world of all-star cheerleading. I mean, definitely in our gym, but literally all over the country she has so many little kids looking up to her.”

The cheerleaders left the Woodlands area to go back to their carpool hangout before being shot.

Pedro Tello Rodriguez Jr. could receive between two and 10 years in prison for the third-degree felony.