Father suspected of killing 2 children in Houston

HOUSTON — A father was suspected of shooting and killing his two children on Tuesday and then turning the gun on himself in an apparent attempted suicide, police said.

Police had been looking for the 8-year-old girl and her 6-year-old brother after their mother reported to authorities that “her estranged husband had called saying he had picked the kids up from the school and planned to drive them to an unknown location and kill them,” spokesman John Cannon said.

A short time later, officers were called to an apartment complex in southwest Houston after a resident and a maintenance worker became concerned when they saw two children and a man in a car with its engine on.

The children were found shot and pronounced dead on the scene. A .380-caliber pistol was found in the car.

“All evidence indicates the suspect shot the kids while inside the car at the apartment complex parking lot and turned the gun on himself,” Cannon said.

The 33-year-old man was transported in critical condition to Ben Taub General Hospital with a gunshot wound to the head.

Cannon said the names of the children would be released by the Harris County medical examiner’s office. He did not release the father’s identity.