Teen Girl Died 'A Hero’ Saving Passenger In Road Rage Turned Shooting, Officials Say

A 17-year-old Texas girl was fatally shot in a road rage shooting on Sunday, after allegedly unintentionally cutting the shooter off on the road, Houston police said at a press conference on Wednesday.

Louise Jean Wilson was killed while driving from her home in Whitney, Texas, to watch the sunrise at the beach with her friend and boyfriend, when police believe she swerved in front of a vehicle to avoid an accident, Houston detective Caleb Bowling said.

Bowling said the driver of the car Wilson cut off began to accelerate and fired multiple shots at Wilson’s vehicle on the driver side.

Wilson and one of the passengers were shot. The shooter then continued to drive down the highway.

Wilson was shot in the heart, but her last act was safely pulling over to the shoulder of the road, potentially saving the other passengers in the car as well as other vehicles on the “tight” freeway.

“It was a heroic act for her to be able to get that car to the side and stop with the injuries she sustained,” Bowling said.

Houston police responded to the shooting at around 1 a.m. CT on Sunday, where they found Wilson dead and two men, one with a non-life-threatening gunshot wound.

Daniel Wilson, the girl’s father, told reporters on Wednesday his daughter “ended up dying a hero,” adding she was loved by the community and asking the shooter to turn themself in.

“They know her. They knew her smile and they talk about what a beautiful young girl she was, and so just think about that, of what you took from this world and what she could’ve done,” Daniel said. “Lay that on your conscience.”

“Louise had such a bright future ahead of her. She was a caring and gentle soul with a lovely personality that could light up a room,” family members wrote in a GoFundMe launched to offset funeral expenses.