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Police: 2 beaten to death in Houston nursing home

HOUSTON (AP) — Police say a resident of a Houston nursing home will face capital murder charges for using the armrest of his wheelchair to beat two of his roommates to death.

The 56-year-old man was in custody pending charges, police spokesman Victor Senties said.

Police aren't saying what provoked the attack Tuesday night at the Lexington Place Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. But Irma Chavez, the daughter of one of the victims, 77-year-old Antonio Acosta, said her father had long complained about the man scaring him — as recently as earlier Tuesday.

She said the man would cut himself, often talked to himself and would argue with other people in the facility.

The Associated Press is not identifying the man pending formal charges.

According to Chavez, when she reported those complaints to nursing home management, she was told she could move her father to a different facility.

"My father told us yesterday, 'Who can we talk to to take this man out of the room? He is very violent,'" she said, standing in the parking lot of the nursing home.

An employee of the nursing home refused to identify herself and declined to comment.

Chavez said Acosta had lived in the facility for two years and was recovering from two strokes. A guitar player who performed around Houston, Acosta was starting to use a walker and was looking forward to the day he could leave, she said.

"The way he went is what's killing me," she said, crying.