HARRIS COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) — A mother was shot and killed in front of her children after she pulled a gun on another driver in west Harris County, according to Sheriff Ed Gonzalez.
Gonzalez said they responded to the scene on the 6700 block of Rusty Ridge Lane on Wednesday afternoon.
Gonzalez said deputies were originally called to the Highland Creek Ranch neighborhood for a reported generic “terroristic threat” call, and that a woman expressed she wanted to file a police report after she found a bullet on top of her car.
As a deputy arrived, new calls for service were broadcast to law enforcement for a shooting at the same location he was responding to, according to Gonzalez.
Investigators said the woman who made the original call to law enforcement was driving with her 8-year-old daughter, 4-year-old son, and dog when a man driving a work truck apparently pulled over to let the woman’s car through, but she then got out, became irate, and began yelling at him.
The man told deputies that he tried to de-escalate the situation, but that she pulled out a pistol, according to investigators.
Gonzalez said the man then got his gun as well and fired an unknown number of times at the woman, who collapsed and died at the scene.
“Her kids were screaming, ‘Mommy’s dead, mommy’s dead, mommy’s dead,'” Islay Santoyo said after witnessing what happened.
Santoyo told ABC13 they heard at least four shots.
HCSO said the children and dog were unharmed.
“It’s traumatizing obviously, for them. I can only imagine what they saw and their immediate reaction,” Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez said the man who shot the woman stayed at the scene and cooperated with deputies as soon as the shooting happened.
The active scene was located two blocks away from Duryea Elementary School. In a statement, Cy-Fair ISD officials said the school was placed under “secure mode” as a precautionary measure, adding that it was lifted 15 minutes later after district police determined there was no threat to the school.
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