Authorities said a neighborhood shooting followed a street fight, a plea for help and a chain of events that family members said began the day before.
HOUSTON, Texas — What police first described as a homeowner shooting an apparent intruder in southwest Houston quickly widened into a deeper family violence case, with one brother critically injured and the other brother still being sought.
The episode matters because investigators said the man who was shot may have been trying to escape a beating rather than commit a burglary. Video obtained by local television station KTRK appeared to show him bloodied and begging neighbors to call 911. At the same time, the injured man’s mother described a long-running feud between her sons and alleged that one of them had tied her up and held her for hours the day before the shooting. Police said the homeowner who fired had not been charged and that the case would likely go before a grand jury.
According to investigators and the family’s account, the confrontation centered on two brothers identified as Leontay Wade and Kenneth Jolivet. Their mother said the dispute had roots in bad blood between the men, who she said operated competing smoke shops. She told reporters the violence escalated a day earlier, when Kenneth Jolivet arrived at her home around 4 p.m., assaulted her, tied her up and held her there for six hours. She said he was trying to draw Wade and their father to the house. By the next day, the conflict had moved into the street in Houston’s Hiram Clarke neighborhood, where the brothers fought openly before the chaos spread to nearby homes.
Ring doorbell footage described in local reports captured Wade in obvious distress. He knocked urgently on a neighbor’s door, asked for help and pleaded for someone to call 911. The homeowner did not open the door, according to the report. Police said Wade then ran to another house and tried to enter it. That second homeowner, believing someone was forcing entry, shot him. Wade was rushed to a hospital in critical condition. In another video detail cited by the family, a man wearing Adidas clothing could be seen nearby, and relatives said that man was Kenneth Jolivet. Police said Kenneth Jolivet left the scene and remained missing as investigators searched for him.
The shooting raised difficult legal and factual questions that had not yet been resolved publicly. Investigators said the homeowner who opened fire had not been charged. They also said the matter would probably be sent to a grand jury to review whether the use of deadly force was justified under the circumstances. Public details remained limited on several points, including whether Wade managed to explain what had happened before he was shot, whether witnesses heard him ask for emergency help, and what direct evidence police had collected about the earlier allegations involving the mother. No detailed charging decision tied to those allegations had been announced in the latest reports.
Relatives described the case as a devastating family collapse rather than an isolated street crime. Shirley Jolivet, speaking emotionally to reporters, said both sons were caught in a feud that had spiraled past control. The image of a wounded man going door to door for help turned the case into something more complicated than a simple break-in report. It also underscored how quickly private disputes can spill into public spaces, pulling in neighbors who must react in seconds with little information. In this case, that split-second judgment left one man fighting for his life and another man the subject of a police search.
The case remained unsettled as of Wednesday, with Wade hospitalized in critical condition, Kenneth Jolivet still unaccounted for, and investigators weighing whether the homeowner’s actions were protected under the law. The next milestone is expected to come as police complete interviews and prepare the case for prosecutorial or grand jury review.
Author note: Last updated March 25, 2026.