| February 24, 2002 http://www.canoe.ca/CNEWSTopNews/children_feb24-ap.html
Man kills his three children
THROCKMORTON, Texas (AP) - A divorced father who was returning his three young children
to their mother's home shot the children to death as they sat in his car outside the
house, then committed suicide, authorities said.
Ron Sadler, a dispatcher with the Throckmorton County sheriff's department, said he
received a 911 call Saturday night from a residence reporting:
"There may be some trouble." Ten minutes later, officers called for an
ambulance.
Sadler said the children were two girls and a boy, ranging in age from three to 10. The
parents had recently divorced, he said. Authorities did not immediately release any names.
Mike Haley, a state Department of Public Safety trooper, confirmed that the man shot his
children as they all sat inside his car outside the residence in Throckmorton, and that he
then shot himself.
Scott Hogue, principal of the Throckmorton schools, said the woman had recently moved back
to the small northern Texas town, where her parents live. "I do know he drove up, and
her father and her went outside to the car, and the three children had been shot and
killed," Hogue said. "The father also was shot, but not dead. He was taken to
the local hospital, and they were going to care-flight him, but he died before that could
happen."
Hogue said the oldest child was a fourth-grade girl named Corey Smallwood.
"She was a sweet little girl, always had a smile on her face. Very pleasant.
She had gotten into our school and really did well in making friends." The other
daughter would have been in kindergarten next fall, and the boy had just turned three,
Hogue said.
Sadler said the shootings were the first homicides in Throckmorton in the seven years he
has worked for the sheriff's office. Throckmorton, a town of about 1,000, is about 195
kilometres west of Dallas.
Copyright � 2002, Canoe, a division of Netgraphe Inc. All rights reserved.
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See Eeva Sodhi's letter-to-the-editor relating to the
issues in this case.
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