A man involved in a domestic dispute opened fire at a suburban Houston home on Wednesday evening, killing six people, four of them children, and wounding one woman, authorities said.
A standoff with the suspected gunman later ensued when deputies cornered him in a nearby street.
The Harris County Sheriff’s Office said in a written statement that precinct deputy constables were called to the house about 6 p.m. and found two adults and three children dead. Another child later died at a hospital.
“It appears this stems from a domestic issue with a breakup in the family, from what our witness has told us,” Assistant Chief Deputy Constable Mark Herman of the Harris County Precinct 4 Constable’s Office told reporters.
Authorities did not release the victims’ identities and did not say how they might be related to each other or the suspect.
The woman who survived identified the shooter and directed deputies to him.
Deputies were using armoured vehicles to block the suspect’s car, and negotiations with him continued late Wednesday.
Sheriff’s Sgt. Thomas Gilliland described the man as in his 30s with a beard “and cool as a cucumber”. He said that when he and other officers approached, the man was “just sitting in his car looking out at us”.
