Top inset: Anthony Joyce (Harris County Jail). Bottom inset: Earl Hollins (Jay Cadmus/Facebook). Background: Grocery store parking lot where Joyce allegedly killed Hollins (Google Maps).
A Texas man is behind bars after he allegedly killed an 80-year-old veteran during a fight over a parking spot.
Anthony Ray Boyce, 57, is facing a murder charge in the death of Earl Hollins. According to a probable cause arrest affidavit, Hollins was backing into a parking space at the Food Town grocery store at 1420 Cypress Creek Road in Houston on Friday. Boyce was also trying to park and the two men got out of their vehicles and started arguing.
Boyce allegedly punched Hollins in the face, causing him to fall and hit the back of his head on the pavement. Hollins was rushed to the hospital where he died over the weekend, authorities say. Boyce drove away from the scene in a maroon Ford F-150 but was later arrested and charged with aggravated assault. Cops upgraded the charges to murder on Tuesday after Hollins’ death. Detectives initially thought the incident was a robbery gone bad but further investigation revealed information about the fight. Investigators believe the two may have known each other prior to the incident as both frequented the grocery store often.
Hollins’ death has stunned his family, especially since it was over something as trivial as a parking spot.
“I said, ‘My god, over a parking spot. You’re going to injure my uncle, and now, finally, he’s dead, and it was over a parking spot,”” his niece Elma Hollins-Washington told local ABC affiliate KTRK.
The death hit the family especially hard since it’s the holiday season.
“What he [did], it wasn’t right,” Hollins-Washington told the TV station. “It wasn’t human.”
Family said Hollins was in good shape for his age and enjoyed cooking.
“He was one of a kind. I mean, to know him, you have to love him. He was an easygoing person, and he was friendly,” Hollins-Washington said.
Boyce is at the Harris County Jail on a $200,000 bond, though the bond may increase with the murder charge. He does not have an attorney listed. Documents say he is retired. NBC affiliate KPRC reports that he was previously a substitute teacher at Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District.
