Glass
6th December 2011, 09:37 PM
US mum denied welfare shoots kids
A Texas woman unable to qualify for food stamps for months walked into a state welfare office with a gun, then shot her two children and killed herself during a seven-hour standoff.
The 10-year-old boy and 12-year-old girl are in a critical condition, said police investigator Joe Baeza in Laredo.
The standoff began about 1700 (CST) on Monday (0900 Tuesday AEDT). Baeza said the woman was speaking with two employees when she pulled out a gun and said she wanted to speak to a supervisor. When the supervisor arrived, he convinced her to let the employees go in exchange for keeping him.
Meanwhile, about 25 other people were moved to safety, police said. The identity of the mother and children were still not made public as of early Tuesday afternoon.
Texas Health and Human Services spokeswoman Stephanie Goodman said the woman first applied for assistance in July, but was denied because she didn't submit enough information.
Goodman said the mother called the office in mid-November to check on her case, which was apparently the last time she tried contacting the state before the shooting.
She said the woman specifically asked to speak with a different case worker than the one she had been working with, when she entered the building on Monday and was escorted to a private room where she revealed a gun.
Police negotiators stayed on the phone with the woman throughout the evening, but she kept hanging up. She let the supervisor go unharmed about 7.45pm, but stayed inside the office with her children.
Four hours later, after hanging up the phone, police heard three shots, and a SWAT team entered the building where they found her body and her two wounded children.
The 38-year-old woman had recently moved to the area from Ohio, Baeza said. She told negotiators about a litany of complaints against state and federal government agencies, though it wasn't clear what specifically triggered Monday's standoff.
"This wasn't like a knee-jerk reaction," Baeza said, adding that the woman felt she was owed restitution of some sort.
story @ the Age (http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/world/12258056/us-mum-denied-welfare-shoots-kids/)
A Texas woman unable to qualify for food stamps for months walked into a state welfare office with a gun, then shot her two children and killed herself during a seven-hour standoff.
The 10-year-old boy and 12-year-old girl are in a critical condition, said police investigator Joe Baeza in Laredo.
The standoff began about 1700 (CST) on Monday (0900 Tuesday AEDT). Baeza said the woman was speaking with two employees when she pulled out a gun and said she wanted to speak to a supervisor. When the supervisor arrived, he convinced her to let the employees go in exchange for keeping him.
Meanwhile, about 25 other people were moved to safety, police said. The identity of the mother and children were still not made public as of early Tuesday afternoon.
Texas Health and Human Services spokeswoman Stephanie Goodman said the woman first applied for assistance in July, but was denied because she didn't submit enough information.
Goodman said the mother called the office in mid-November to check on her case, which was apparently the last time she tried contacting the state before the shooting.
She said the woman specifically asked to speak with a different case worker than the one she had been working with, when she entered the building on Monday and was escorted to a private room where she revealed a gun.
Police negotiators stayed on the phone with the woman throughout the evening, but she kept hanging up. She let the supervisor go unharmed about 7.45pm, but stayed inside the office with her children.
Four hours later, after hanging up the phone, police heard three shots, and a SWAT team entered the building where they found her body and her two wounded children.
The 38-year-old woman had recently moved to the area from Ohio, Baeza said. She told negotiators about a litany of complaints against state and federal government agencies, though it wasn't clear what specifically triggered Monday's standoff.
"This wasn't like a knee-jerk reaction," Baeza said, adding that the woman felt she was owed restitution of some sort.
story @ the Age (http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/world/12258056/us-mum-denied-welfare-shoots-kids/)