Texas police fatally shoot woman who killed her two daughters

A mother in a suburban Texas town fatally shot her two daughters Friday, before police shot her dead in front of her home.

That afternoon, Christy Sheats had called her husband, Jason Sheats, and their two daughters, Madison, 17, and Taylor, 22, into their living room for a family meeting, the Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office said.

When they were all gathered together, Christy Sheats held up a gun and shot both her daughters, police said. The girls and their father managed to run out of the house before Madison collapsed. Sheats followed and shot Taylor twice more, while Jason Sheats ran to the end of the street, according to authorities.

When police arrived at the house in response to a 911 call about shots being fired, they found the daughters lying in the street, bleeding. Christy Sheats stood nearby, holding a five-shot .38 caliber handgun, the sheriff’s office said. When she refused to drop the gun and moved toward the officers with her weapon raised, police said, an officer shot and killed her.

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Taylor was shot three times and pronounced dead at the scene. Madison was shot once and airlifted to Memorial Hermann Hospital, where she died later that night, the sheriff’s office said in a statement.

The Sheats lived in the Katy area near Fulshear, a suburb about 25 miles west of Houston. The community is relatively affluent with a low crime rate, said Maj. Chad Norvell, commander of the Administration Bureau of the Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office.

“These types of things, no one can predict,” he said.

Investigators are now trying to determine why Sheats killed her daughters. “Obviously she was in some sort of mental crisis,” Norvell said.

Since January 2012, the sheriff’s office had responded to 14 calls for service at the house, authorities said.

Norvell said the calls included the house alarm going off and medical emergencies, but he refused to discuss the specific nature of these instances.

In recent months, Sheats had posted on Facebook about her Christian religious beliefs, her disapproval of President Obama and liberal politics, and her support for gun rights.

On Jan. 9, she posted a meme celebrating gun ownership and criticizing Obama for his support of gun control, with the caption “That’s right! #merica”

She was also vocal about her love for her two daughters. She posted on “Daughters Day” last year:

“Happy Daughters Day to my two amazing, kind, beautiful, intelligent girls. I love and treasure you both more than you could ever possibly know.”

Madison Sheats was going to be a senior at Seven Lakes High School this fall and worked as a babysitter, according to her Facebook page.

Taylor Sheats had recently graduated from Lone Star College. She frequently displayed her artwork, including commissioned pieces, on Facebook.

Neighbors told the news station KTRK that they were shocked by the shooting.

“This is not the Christy that I know. It’s just not,” Catherine Knowles, a friend of Christy’s, told the station.

“I couldn’t imagine anything in her life that would have made her snap,” she added.

To an outside observer, the Sheats family appeared to be close.

On Jan. 6, Christy Sheats posted about a new roller coaster opening up at Cedar Point amusement park. “We are going as soon as this new world record coaster opens!!!” she wrote, tagging her husband and daughters in the post. All three liked the post and responded with excitement.

The officer’s shooting of Sheats is being investigated to ensure it was justified, Norvell said.

“We certainly think it was,” he added.

When asked whether the police intended to kill Sheats, Norvell responded, “If we shoot someone, that’s the only way we shoot. We shoot to end the threat.”

erica.evans@latimes.com

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