The calm of a Thanksgiving dinner was terrifyingly disturbed when gunman stormed through the backdoor of a home in Houston and killed a man and a woman while another two – including a 15-year-old boy – were injured.
During an early morning press conference held outside the Spring Branch home where the massacre unfolded, Houston Assistant Police Chief Patricia Cantu confirmed that police had received a call about a shooting at approximately 9.18pm Thursday, shortly after the group inside had finished sitting down for their holiday dinner.
Officers arrived shortly after and found two people dead, whose identities have not been revealed at this time, while two more, including the teenage boy and another adult male, were alive with gunshot wounds.
The deceased female, who Ms Cantu described as being the ex-wife of the suspected shooter, as the pair shared a child together, was announced dead at the scene as well as the other deceased male. That man’s relationship with the group was unclear, she said.
The group, which included friends of the family, had finished eating their Thanksgiving dinner when the suspect stormed through the back door and fired multiple rounds – even finding time to reload his weapon at the scene, Ms Cantu noted.
“There were four other people inside the house. As soon as they heard the shooting, they ran to the rooms for safety,” Ms Cantu said.
The suspect remains at large, and the Houston Police will be providing updates later in the day as they seek the assistance of the public and the media to track down the individual they believe responsible for the deadly shooting.
“This is a very sad situation. It’s Thanksgiving. People are supposed to celebrate with their families,” Ms Cantu said, before noting that the shooting, which has been labelled a “domestic-related incident”, left the surviving victims “traumatised”.
The identities of all the victims involved in the shooting have not been released, while authorities were able to confirm that the teenager is in stable condition while the other male wounded is in critical condition.
