Rucks Russel's update

HOUSTON -- A suspected copper thief was arrested early Friday morning in North Houston. A Houston activist held him until police arrived.

On March 8, the owner of the convenience store at 704 Crosstimbers, Joe Moses, was killed in a robbery. The business had been closed since then.

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John Branch held the suspect until police arrived.

But just after 4:30 a.m. Friday, John Branch's phone rang. He was told that someone was breaking into the store.

Branch ran to the store and caught the suspect. He had a minor injury while trying to get the suspect out of his vehicle.

Branch has lived in the area for quite sometime, and he said it is a relief that this suspect is off of the streets.

"Many churches -- and anybody that will attack a church just for simple copper, quick money, you know -- we want them off the streets," he said. "Once I got the call, I jumped out of bed, came down, and we're not gonna put up with that in this neighborhood.

"We're already grieving for the murder of Joe in this area, and now we've still got -- you're gonna take advantage of this and the family?" he said. "No, we're not gonna take that here. We're gonna do whatever we can to get you off the street."

Moses ran the store for years.

"The family's still grieving, the neighborhood's still grieving, but apparently Joe is above, still fighting crime and helping his neighborhood," Branch said. "So we put all of this together with neighbors working together, and we got one of them off the street.

"Hopefully it's gonna take care a lot of the cases with the churches and everything else in the neighborhood," he said. "And to the DA: Hang him."

Houston police took the suspect into custody.