Woman Killed by Police After Killing Daughters

A Texas mother shot and killed her two daughters Friday afternoon in a “comfortable, middle-class subdivision" near Katy, the Houston Chronicle reports. According to CNN, she was then shot and killed by a police officer after refusing to drop the gun. KPRC identifies the women as 42-year-old Christy Sheats, 22-year-old Taylor Sheats, and 17-year-old Madison Sheats. Police were called to the neighbor for reports of gunshots around 5pm and found the two daughters lying in the street. One was pronounced dead at the scene; the other died at the hospital. "It was a family argument that turned into a shooting," the Chronicle quotes Sheriff Troy Nehls as saying. "But we're still trying to put the pieces together."

The father and husband was home at the time of the shooting and was distraught, though uninjured. He was taken to the hospital as a precaution. "He's going through a very difficult time," the Chronicle quotes Nehls as saying. An acquaintance of the family says "they were always cheerful." "Those parents are good. They are hard-working," a neighbor tells KTRK. “I do not know how this happened.” However, other neighbors say there may have been marital problems. And deputies had been called to the home in the past, though it's unclear why. (More murder stories.)