Editor’s Note: This story briefly mentions suicide. Mental health resources can be found at the bottom of this story.
The Haltom City shooting that left three people dead last week was a “carefully planned” ambush carried out in the midst of a custody dispute, police officials said Monday.
Officers were dispatched shortly before 4:30 p.m. Friday to the parking lot of Birdville Stadium in the 6100 block of East Belknap. There, police say the suspected shooter, 30-year-old John Mbuyi, lured the victims under the pretense of giving them money.
Mbuyi instead shot and killed 33-year-old Raissa Thatukila and 6-year-old Nathy Mbuyi, a kindergartner in Birdville ISD, before turning the gun on himself, according to a news release from the Haltom City Police Department.
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Investigators determined there was an ongoing custody dispute between John and Raissa, and said John harbored “significant grievances” toward her. He was also in distress following the death of his father, police said, and expressed having “concerning thoughts” about death.
“Based on the evidence, detectives have concluded this was not a spontaneous incident but a deliberate act of violence,” police wrote in the release.
Mental health resources