5 shot dead in Oak Cliff home
Wounded woman escaped to neighbor's house to call police; victims' relative in custody

08/05/2002

By MATT STILES / The Dallas Morning News

A woman bleeding from a gunshot wound ran to a neighbor's house in central Oak Cliff Sunday night to report the horrific news:

She told police a relative wounded her and fatally shot a mother and her two young daughters, another woman and a man at her home. A suspect was in custody Sunday night.

Police said it was one of the city's most tragic episodes of family violence.

"This is the worst that I've ever seen – and I've been in homicide 10 years," said Dallas police Sgt. Gary Kirkpatrick. "There's never been one of this magnitude."

 

CONRAD SCHMIDT / DMN
Police investigate at the Salerno Drive house. "This is the worst that I've ever seen – and I've been in homicide 10 years," said Sgt. Gary Kirkpatrick.  
Officers responding to the neighbor's call about 6:15 p.m. found the victims inside the home in the 2300 block of Salerno Drive. Police identified the victims as the suspect's 32-year-old wife; their two daughters, ages 10 months and 7; her 56-year-old father; and her two sisters, ages 20 and 27. The victims who were killed were found inside the kitchen and living room of the home.

Four of the victims died at the scene. The youngest girl died at an area hospital, police said.

The 27-year-old was wounded in her upper body and was transported to Methodist Medical Center, where she was in critical condition, but expected to live, officials said. The names of the victims were withheld until relatives could be notified, police said.

Moments after arriving, officers took a man into custody at a nearby shopping center. The man, whose name was not released and who had not been charged Sunday evening, apparently is the father of the girls killed, Sgt. Kirkpatrick said.

"It is presumed that he was related to some of the people in the home," Sgt. Kirkpatrick said, adding that a semiautomatic handgun was recovered in the home. "It may be that everyone inside the home was family. I just don't know at this point."

Police said the man was cooperating with police as he was being held for questioning.


Family violence incidents  
Here are recent family violence incidents that have resulted in fatalities:
July 16: Dee Etta Perez, a Hudson Oaks woman, shoots and kills her three children, Sergio, 10, Diego, 9, and Bianca, 4, at their home. She also shoots her husband, Fort Worth fire Capt. Manny Perez, who survives.

March 22: A Garland man, Jose Gonzales, shoots and kills his 16-year-old stepdaughter, Andrea Anguiano, and then fatally shoots himself.

May 2, 2001: John Battaglia shoots and kills two of his daughters – Liberty, 6, and Faith, 9 – while they visit his Deep Ellum loft and while the girls' mother, Mary Jean Pearle, is on the phone from her Highland Park home. Mr. Battaglia was convicted and sentenced to death.

Aug. 29, 2001: The bodies of Tammy Hankins, her son, Kevin Galley, 13, and daughter, Ashley Mason, 11, are discovered by relatives in a Mansfield mobile home. The woman's husband, Terry Lee Hankins, is arrested and charged with capital murder. He later would be convicted and sentenced to death in a trial during which prosecutors also linked him to the deaths of his father and half sister.

Aug. 23, 2001: Jennette Markley, 37, of Garland and her son, Michael Scott Bartlett, 17, are killed by her husband, Jerome Markley, as they return home to retrieve belongings. Mr. Markley also wounds family friend Rod Grosse, who had come along to help. Mr. Markley then kills himself.

Aug. 13, 2001: A 26-year-old Dallas man, Danny Dehoyos, kills his wife, Hortencia Rodriguez, 18, and their daughters, Celeste, 18 months, and Valarie, 7 months, before killing himself.

Source: Dallas Morning News research


Rapid shots

Sgt. Kirkpatrick said the man's brother told police that the family had some domestic problems, but a motive for the shooting was still being investigated Sunday night.
A search of police incident reports from 2000 to Sunday found no reported domestic violence incidents at the home, police said.

Police said neighbors heard two spurts of gunfire and that at least one woman heard screams before officers arrived. The pause in gunfire occurred when the shooter reloaded the handgun, Sgt. Kirkpatrick said.

Shots "were going off so fast it sounded like a string of fireworks," Sgt. Kirkpatrick said, describing a neighbor's report.

He said witnesses saw the suspect run from the home after the gunshots and speed away from the home in the family's silver sport utility vehicle. The car and suspect were discovered at nearby Wynnewood Village shopping center shortly after police arrived at the family home.

Neighbors who live on the quiet street said they never heard disturbances from the home, a one-story, light-blue brick building with a screened-in porch.

"It scares me – they were a peaceful family," said Maria Torres, who lives with her husband and four children down the street. "I don't understand why this would happen."

'Good people'


Neighbors David and Ana Carter said the family didn't appear to have any problems.
"We thought everything was beautiful," Mr. Carter said. "They were nice ordinary children."

Gussie McClendon, who lives across the street, said she watched in horror as the infant was wheeled on a stretcher into an ambulance. She said the family always appeared kind.

 

CONRAD SCHMIDT / DMN
Police said neighbors heard two spurts of gunfire and that at least one woman heard screams. Witnesses also said they saw the suspect run from the home after gunshots, police said.  
"They are wonderful people," said Ms. McClendon, who lives across the street a few houses down the drive. "I thought they were a close family."

Ms. McClendon said one of the young victims was very friendly. "You'd yell across the street, and she'd come over all the time," she said.

"They were good people. Really good people."

Quoted:
I don't know why I continue to be surprised by the media's ineptitude in describing guns, but I saw two different news reports reporting that an "automatic weapon" was used by the shooter.