Christy, Madison, and Taylor Sheats
Police in Texas on Tuesday released the frantic 911 calls made the day witnesses described seeing a woman gun down her two daughters on a neighborhood street.
According to officials, Christy Sheats called a family meeting Friday at the family's home west of Houston with her daughters and husband, Jason — then pulled out a handgun and opened fire.
The first call came in around 5 p.m. When police arrived, the 42-year-old mother had already shot her two daughters in the street. After she refused to put down her weapon, police say, an officer shot her dead.
The first two calls were made by her daughters — 17-year-old Madison and 22-year-old Taylor — and the third by a neighbor who asked to remain anonymous and witnessed the attack from across the street.
In both calls from the daughters, pleading and screaming can be heard in the background. In the first call, a woman can be heard begging "please don't shoot." Another person is heard saying, "I'll promise you whatever you want."
Those two calls were followed by the neighbor, who immediately requests an ambulance and says "I believe they were shot" about two people he described seeing in the street.
"There's a lady with a gun," the caller adds. "She's coming out of her house, right now."
As he's talking to the dispatcher, the caller says he ran to the back of his house because of the "lady with a gun."
He describes the lady as "Caucasian" and peeks through the window to confirm to the dispatcher that the shooter is wearing a purple dress.
"Where are the patients?" the dispatcher asks.
"They're in the street," the 911 caller responds. "In the middle of the street."
"It's two people laying in the street?" the dispatcher asks.
"Two people — two ladies laying in the street," he responds. "There's a guy trying to help them, but the lady is on top of one of them with the gun in her hand."
"The suspect is on top of one of the females in the street?"
"Yes, she's on the street, just standing up," the caller says.
"She's standing over one of the patients with the gun?" the dispatcher asks.
"Yes. And it looks like both of them are alive. Both of the child — persons — these two ladies are both alive... She's trying to shoot again on top of her, but apparently she don't have no more bullets.
"She's going inside the house now," he continues. "Hopefully she's not getting no more bullets — because it looks like she's going to look for more bullets."
"OK, stay on the line," the dispatcher responds.
"I don't know where the guy went, but apparently he's yelling at her and they're talking back and forth."
The dispatcher asks the caller to describe the man, and he says he is Caucasian as well as the women who have been shot.
"She's coming back again and apparently she has bullets now," the caller says.
"Stay on the line," the dispatcher replies.
"Oooh, she shot her again," the caller says. "She shot her again."
"She shot her again?" the dispatcher asks.
"Yes, from the back," he replies. "She was trying to run."
"She shot the female again that was—"
"Yes, that was laying down on the floor. She shot her from the back," he responds.
The caller then tells someone in his own home to lay down on the floor. The dispatcher says to make sure that his family is secure and not to let anyone see him looking out the window.
"I don't see them anymore," the caller says. "I can hear bullets... She's laying down on the floor."
"The female who was shooting is laying down?" the dispatcher asks.
"Yes."
"Did she shoot herself?" the dispatcher asks.
"I don't know — I just see her down on the floor now," the caller responds. "I didn't see because I had to run to take my son to safety."
Police would later discover that Jason Sheats had been able to run to the end of the cul-de-sac, while his wife pursued their daughters.
Officials have not released a motive for the attack, nor have they addressed reports that Christy Sheats suffered from mental illness.