RE: Houston Poker Room Gun Battle (3)

More details emerge as fallen robber is buried

Barron Boutte, 1985-2009

The funeral for Barron Glenn Boutte is today in Houston. He\’s the 24-year-old shot and killed while attempting to rob a Houston underground poker room earlier this month. His shooter is not being publicly identified, though police have determined Boutte\’s death a matter of self-defense. Club 203, where the fatal shootout occurred, has been indefinitely shut down.

A few more details about the thwarted robbery, coming to us now secondhand, as opposed to thirdhand

Apparently the robbery suspects confronted a player leaving the game in the parking lot, and a scuffle ensued. The first shots were reportedly fired at the door to gain entry, and the robbers continued shooting into the air once inside. They did indeed shoot one patron in the leg when he was slow to get on the ground as ordered.

Boutte\’s armed nemesis and several others were smoking in the break room when the melee went down. One robber supposedly told these players they\’d better not be coming out without cash — thinking maybe they were hiding it — and that\’s when the poker-room hero emerged brandishing his own gun.

Boutte was shot at least four times in the abdomen and made it out to the parking lot before falling and dying.

A nervous wave has washed over the Houston poker underground — with action slower than normal, and some rooms looking to hire visible security.