Calls for help led up to family shooting
The Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office responded to more than a dozen calls for help — including three attempted suicides — in four years at the troubled Katy home where a family meeting Friday erupted into violence that ended with a mother and two daughters fatally wounded in the street.
But Fort Bend County Sheriff Troy Nehls said he didn’t know if the mental health calls came from Christy Byrd Sheats, 42, a vocal Second Amendment proponent who shot her two daughters before being gunned down by police.
“She may be dealing with a mental crisis, but we cannot confirm that Christy
suffered from mental issues — the only one who knows that is her husband,” Nehls said.
“It just seems like an argument — a domestic disturbance in a family that turns into a shooting where a mother went out and shot her two daughters — somebody would say she’s got mental health issues because who in her right mind would do that,” he said.
The girls’ father, Jason Sheats, 45, also was targeted in the shooting but escaped unharmed down the cul-de-sac. He is cooperating with investigators, Nehls said.
“That will be our job here; that will be the investigators’ focus now for the next coming days, to try and pinpoint the motive,” he said. “And if she was suffering from some type of mental illness, what type of outreach, what type of help she was getting.
“I think you want to know, did the system fail her? Did we fail her? Did her family fail her? I would want to know. I would want to get to the bottom of it,” he said.
Investigators said Christy Sheats had called a family meeting Friday, which also happened to be her husband’s birthday. An argument ensued, and she lifted a five-shot, .38-caliber handgun and opened fire on Taylor, 22, and Madison Sheats, 17.
The father and both daughters managed to get out of the front door of their Katy-area home. Madison fell and died after leaving the house.
Taylor ran into the street, where her mother shot her again. A witness said Christy Sheats returned to the home to reload the gun, then came back outside and shot Taylor once more.
Fort Bend County Sheriff ’s Office officials arrived at the scene in time to see the final shot. A Fulshear police officer shot the mother after she refused to drop the gun, officials said.
Taylor Sheats was transported by helicopter to the Texas Medical Center, where she later died.
Christy Sheats had posted several times on her Facebook page in support of the Second Amendment and in opposition to guncontrol efforts.
“It would be horribly tragic if my ability to protect myself or my family were to be taken away, but that’s exactly what Democrats are determined to do by banning semi-automatic handguns,” she said in a Facebook post in March.
The shooting came just days before Taylor Sheats had planned to be married, according to another Facebook post.
The young woman was set to marry her boyfriend of four years, Juan Lugo, at a small wedding Monday, followed later by a larger celebration, the girls’ grandmother, Ann Sheats Wooten, posted on Facebook.
“They were to be married Monday and later again after graduation from college with a big wedding,” Wooten posted Sunday evening.
The couple may have obtained a marriage license as late as Friday, the day of the shooting. Texas law requires a 72-hour waiting period after the issuance of a marriage license.
Taylor attended Lone Star College’s CyFair campus and had attended Seven Lakes High School in the Katy Independent School District. Her sister reportedly also attended the school.
Taylor had kind words to say about her mother in a May 2013 Facebook post on Mother’s Day.
“You’re one of the strongest people I know, if not the strongest, and you have had to overcome so much in your life but you still manage to love us and put your everything into being a mom,” Taylor said in the post.
Taylor also said in an April Facebook post that she supported the Second Amendment, but she posted a meme that questioned the refusal of gun activists to accept any limitations.
“Don’t punish me because SOME gun owners are nutjobs,” the meme stated, with a photo of the Sandy Hook Elementary children escaping a gunman with their teachers.
Taylor also had tried to raise awareness of anxiety and depression among college students on her Facebook page.
“As someone who has dealt with anxiety for the overwhelming majority of my life, I want to create a space for students dealing with generalized anxiety, depression, panic attacks, test anxiety, etc.,” she posted on Facebook in March.
The Harris County Medical Examiner’s Office has not yet completed autopsies of the three but indicated that Taylor died at a hospital of gunshot wounds to the head and torso.
Madison died of a gunshot wound of the neck that went into her chest, according to the medical examiner.
Christy died from a gunshot wound to the chest.