Cops: Texas Man Kills 4 Kids

Death toll at 6; suspect surrenders after 3-hour standoff
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 9, 2014 11:07 PM CDT
Updated Jul 10, 2014 2:30 AM CDT
2 Adults, 4 Kids Shot Dead at Houston Home
Law enforcement officers investigate the scene of a shooting in Spring, Texas.    (AP Photo/Houston Chronicle, Brett Coomer)

Police say a man killed six people—four of them children—at a suburban Houston home last night. He also critically wounded a 15-year-old girl, authorities say. She was apparently able to call 911 to tell police what kind of car he was driving, and where he was headed next, reports the Chronicle. That destination, per Fox News: her grandparents' home. Authorities were then able to box him into a cul-de-sac roughly three miles from the shooting scene. After hours of waiting and negotiations, the man emerged from his car, raised his hands, and sank to his knees as deputies placed him under arrest. Fox News and CNN have identified the shooter as 34-year-old Ron Lee Haskell, but CNN now clarifies, by way of Constable Ron Hickman, that Haskell was not the children's father.

Hickman says one of the home's residents is thought to be related to the woman Haskell had been married to. "It appears this stems from a domestic issue with a breakup in the family from what our witness has told us," a police spokesman told reporters. The dead are two boys, ages 4 and 14; two girls, ages 7 and 9; a 39-year-old man; and a 33-year-old woman, police say. Their names have not been released, nor has any potential relationship between the adults and the children. The shooting occurred about 20 miles north of Houston, in Spring. (More Houston stories.)

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