911 calls capture a family horror

Daughters beg for their lives as mother shoots

Graphic 911 calls captured the violent argument that erupted in a Fort Bend County home just minutes before a mother and her two daughters lay fatally wounded in the street in their quiet, suburban neighborhood.

“Please don’t point that gun at us,” father Jason Sheats can be heard screaming on the 911 recordings. “Please. Please, don’t shoot my family.”

The calls reveal the harrowing back-andforth between Christy Byrd Sheats, her husband and their two daughters, Taylor, 22, and Madison, 17, before the shooting Friday afternoon near Fulshear.

The sisters and their father can be heard begging the woman to put down the gun. Instead, Christy Sheats, 42, opened fire on her daughters, then chased them into the street before she eventually was shot dead by law enforcement officers.

Madison Sheats died at the scene. Taylor Sheats — who was set to be married Monday — died later at a local hos-

pital. Jason Sheats, 45, escaped into the cul-de-sac and was not injured.

Recordings of the three calls — placed by Taylor and Madison Sheats and an unidentified neighbor — were released Tuesday by the Fort Bend County Sheriff ’s Office.

The first call, which authorities said was placed by Madison, begins with a woman’s voice, apparently Christy Sheats, shouting.

“I told you...” she says, before a man’s voice can be heard shouting, “Please forgive me, I’m sorry.”

The father and daughters can all be heard apologizing to Christy Sheats without explaining why.

“Wait ... please don’t shoot,” one of the girls said.

“Don’t do it. Please don’t do it,” says another.

Jason Sheats can then be heard saying, “I promise you, whatever you want, I’ll ...” before the call drops off.

‘She shot her again’

The second call came from Taylor Sheats’ phone, authorities said. It captured more screams and shouts but the words are indiscernible.

A third 911 call from a neighbor provided a second-by-second account of the mother chasing the daughters outside the home then standing over them trying to fire more shots.

“There’s a lady with a gun,” the caller said, peering

outside the window of his home. “They’re lying in the street, in the middle of the street.”

She apparently stopped only when the gun was empty, then went inside to reload, he said.

“She’s trying to shoot again,” the neighbor said, his voice shaking. “She don’t have any more bullets.”

She returned to fire another shot into Taylor Sheats.

“Oh,” the witness groaned. “She shot her again. She shot her again ... She shot her from the back.”

The neighbor said he heard more gunshots, then told the dispatcher

that the woman had fallen to the ground.

He quickly realized that law enforcement officers had arrived.

“It doesn’t look like she’s moving anymore,” he told the 911 dispatcher.

“I’m sorry you had to see that, sir,” the dispatcher said.

Family friend speaks

A family friend, Madison Davey, 21, said Tuesday she knew that Christy Sheats had a history of mental illness, and had been “in and out of mental hospitals.”

She didn’t like people coming to the house while she was there, Davey said.

“I do want people to know the truth,” Davey said. “Christy did not have a motive. Christy was not mentally stable, and mental illness is a serious issue.”

Fort Bend County sheriff ’s officials said they had received 14 calls for help from the home over the past four years, including three attempted suicides. But they would not identify which of the family was suicidal.

Christy and Jason Sheats had been separated in the past, Davey said, but had never divorced.

“I know that Jason and Christy were fighting about several different issues, but I’m not sure what the final thing was that made her snap,” she said.

Taylor was a student at Lone Star College-CyFair and was engaged to be married Monday to her boyfriend of four years, Juan Sebastian Lugo, according to a Facebook post from her grandmother.

Madison was an incoming senior at Seven Lakes High School, Katy Independent School District officials confirmed.

Davey said her friend Taylor was a passionate and talented artist who was thinking of pursuing a career in teaching.

“The thing I enjoyed most about Taylor was her attitude towards life,” Davey said. “Taylor never complained. She was always laughing and smiling.”