Houston tax preparer allegedly brandished gun at customers who complained about filings
One of the victims filmed the incident on her cellphone.
A Houston tax preparer faces assault and robbery charges after she allegedly brandished a gun at a disgruntled customer and stole the cellphone of another filming the altercation, according to police and victim accounts.
Latunya Wright, 46, was arrested and charged with two felonies after Harris County deputies responded to a disturbance at MZ BIZ Tax Services on Kuykendahl Road in north Houston on Thursday.
Wright allegedly got into a verbal altercation with a customer "that turned physical," the Harris County Constable Precinct 4 said in a statement.
"Investigation revealed that she struck the victim with a firearm that she brandished during the altercation," the precinct said.
The criminal complaints allege Wright threatened a man with "imminent bodily injury" by displaying a firearm and also injured a woman and exhibited a firearm while stealing her property.
The woman named in the charging documents, Marquita Boyle, shared cellphone video she took of the incident with Houston ABC station KTRK.
Boyle told the station that she started recording after Wright allegedly pulled a gun on a customer who was complaining about the tax return she filed for him.
"She had the gun pointed at him, and then she turned around with the gun and she actually cocked the gun," Boyle said.
Boyle alleged that Wright grabbed the phone, hit her on the head with it and deleted the video. Boyle was later able to retrieve the video for police, she said.
"My anxiety is through the roof," she told KTRK.
Boyle told the station that she had used Wright's business to file her taxes and went there on Thursday to discuss what she says was wrong information sent to the IRS.
Wright was arrested and booked into the Harris County Jail. She met her $40,000 bond Saturday. Bond conditions include that she not possess any firearms, ammunition or other weapons, court documents show.
A court date is scheduled for Monday. It is unclear if she has a lawyer. ABC News was unable to reach anyone at MZ BIZ Tax Services.
In 2012, Wright, a native of Missouri, was sentenced to more than four years in federal prison after pleading guilty in connection with the multi-million-dollar robbery of an ATM company in St. Louis.
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