Man allegedly posed as juvenile to meet up with child predator and killed him

HOUSTON (TCD) -- A 22-year-old man has been charged after allegedly targeting a child predator and fatally shooting him last year.

On May 29, 2023, shortly before 4 a.m., the Houston Police Department responded to a report of an unresponsive man with multiple gunshot wounds in a ditch at 900 Northwood St. Houston Fire Department paramedics also went to the scene and pronounced the victim, later identified as 37-year-old Sean Showers, dead.

Police allege James Spencer fatally shot Showers from inside a vehicle while the victim was walking along a roadway. According to KPRC-TV, the suspect pretended to be a minor and planned to meet with Showers under the guise of a sexual arrangement.

KPRC reports that Spencer believed law enforcement officials weren’t doing enough to keep child predators in prison, and he wanted to take matters into his own hands and hurt them.

Officers arrested Spencer nearly nine months after the fatal shooting, on Wednesday, Jan. 31. He was booked into the Harris County Jail on a charge of murder and remains held on $250,000 bond. Spencer faces up to life in prison if convicted.

Prior to the shooting, Showers pleaded guilty in 2009 to possessing child pornography, according to the Houston Division of the FBI. The victim reportedly served time in federal prison, and he failed to register as a sex offender.

In a statement obtained by KPRC, Victim Services Director of Houston Crime Stoppers Andy Kahan said, "This was diabolically cunning."

Kahan added, "When I look at this, I’m going, 'This is the stuff you see in movies.'"

MORE:

• UPDATE: Suspect Arrested, Charged in May 2023 Fatal Shooting at 900 Northwood Street - Houston Police Department
• Harris County Jail Records
• ‘Diabolically cunning’: Man accused of posing as minor online to meet child predator, then shoots and kills him - KPRC
• 23-Year-Old Pleads Guilty to Posssessing Child Pornography, 7/29/2009 - FBI, Houston Division