Friday, December 2, 2011

Another Texas Domestic Violence Mass Shooting and Suicide

I guess it is too late now to stop this guy from having guns; and yet those who are gun nuts would never find an instance where someone - like this - doesn't get to have legal guns.  This was a violent man, who used firearms to terrorize his family. 

Taking away his guns after is just too little, too late.

From MSNBC.com:

Texas father kills 4 kids, wounds wife in suicidal gun assault


Pat Sullivan/AP
Gloria Carranza adds balloons to a makeshift memorial Thursday outside a trailer in Bay City, Texas, where a man shot dead four children and wounded their mother on Wednesday before killing himself.
BAY CITY, Texas -- Laura Gonzalez was happy to be back at work after three weeks away that included a stay at a battered women's shelter. She saw it as the beginning of a new life. One without her husband and the father of her four children, she told co-workers. She wasn't going back to him this time, she said, and left for home.
Less than an hour later, her 24-year-old husband, Jose Avila, launched a brutal final assault. First he shot his wife three times. Then, he began shooting the children. Avila's final act was to kill himself.
Two of the children died at a hospital Thursday, a day after their two siblings were killed in the shooting that rattled the small southeast Texas town of Bay City. Their mother remains hospitalized.
As details trickled out, a picture emerged Thursday of a family long struggling with violence, including an assault reported by Gonzalez just before Thanksgiving. After that, she went to a battered women's shelter.
"I asked her how she was doing because I knew she was at the crisis center. She said she was trying to make something of her freedom and a better life for herself and her children," said Alejandro Gonzalez, a fellow waiter at La Casona, the Mexican restaurant where Gonzalez worked.
"She wanted to make a better life for his kids because they see all the violence," he added, recounting the conversation he had with Gonzalez hours before Avila turned on her.
Although Gonzalez left the trailer home she shared with her husband after reporting the assault, Bay City Lt. Andrew Lewis said she refused to press charges. He didn't know how long she stayed at the shelter.
Wednesday's violence unfolded on a quiet street in Bay City — a town about 65 miles southwest of Houston — just as two nearby schools were letting out. The couple started arguing inside the trailer, and Avila shot his wife twice, Lewis said. She ran out to the front yard, where Avila shot her a third time. Then, he turned on the children.
"We heard ... that he was walking around waving a gun," Lewis said, describing the violent scene that unfolded on a lawn now decorated with a makeshift memorial of teddy bears, candles and prayer books. At least one student witnessed the incident.
Two brothers, aged 3 and 5, died of their wounds at a Houston hospital on Wednesday. The other two children, ages 2 and 4, had been on life support but died Thursday. Gonzalez is also at a Houston hospital, but Lewis did not know her condition.
Police have not officially released the names of the victims, but co-workers and neighbors identified Avila's wife as Laura Gonzalez.
The family had moved into the trailer home near Bay City's Western-style downtown about a year ago, neighbors said. They appeared to live a quiet life. On occasion, next-door neighbor Isuro Perez heard them arguing, but it appeared to be nothing out-of-the-ordinary. Just a run-of-the-mill dispute between a married couple.
"He always plays soccer out here in this field out here, plays soccer with his kids," Perez said, pointing to a grassy area opposite the row of trailer homes. "They were nice people, nothing went wrong really. They were a happy family."
At work, though, Gonzalez portrayed a different picture. Alejandro Gonzalez said he once saw her with a black eye. And Ruby Gomez, a waitress at La Casona, said Laura Gonzalez had told her about problems she had with her husband.
"She had to leave to get the kids in the afternoon because he threatened her that if she left him he was going to kill the four kids and her," Gomez said.
Once, Gomez said, Gonzalez told her Avila had locked her in the house and gone to work. She escaped through a window and went to a shelter, Gomez recounted. That was the second time she left him, and vowed not to go back.
The first time "he convinced her that he was going to change and that he really loved his kids, and convinced her to return to live with him," Gomez said.
Still, the tragic outcome of the relationship came as a shock to Gonzalez's co-workers and to other residents of Bay City — a town of just over 17,000 people surrounded by large ranches and farmland. The shooting was the talk of the town Thursday, as residents drove slowly past the couple's home.
Some stopped to add something to the growing memorial. Others cried. Several prayed.
"It's going to be sad for the momma when she wakes up and finds out she lost her children," said Gloria Carranza, a 41-year-old Bay City native who added pink and blue balloons to the memorial.
"Things like this don't happen in a small town like Bay City," she said.

10 comments:

  1. How to deal with an abusive and violent husband
    Man shot during dispute faces charges

    Police say a man was shot Saturday in the 1700 block of Alston Street in Shreveport's Allendale neighborhood after a domestic dispute.

    Officers said a fight between Kenneth Robinson, 26, and his wife, Tomeka Nunn, 28, took place just after 5 p.m.

    Officers said they think Robinson physically struck Nunn during the altercation, prompting Nunn to produce a handgun and fire two shots into Robinson's legs.

    Robinson was taken to LSU Hospital with what are described as nonlife-threatening injuries.

    Police say charges will be filed against Robinson for the abuse. They also said Nunn is not being charged at this stage in the investigation, as the shooting appears to be self-defense.
    http://www.shreveporttimes.com/article/20111030/NEWS03/110300340/Blotter-Man-shot-during-dispute-faces-charges

    ReplyDelete
  2. Another gutless piece of shit with a gun.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous:How to deal with an abusive and violent husband
    Man shot during dispute faces charges


    Better solution - leave, sue him for divorce, and take his money if he has any.

    Better solution - call police either before or after leaving, and have him put in jail.

    Better solution - anything that doesn't involve a gun or people getting hurt.

    Best solution -looking for nonviolent solutions and better long term conflict resolution, so that neither spouse resorts to violence as an expression of their emotions, instead of thinking shooting anyone or hitting anyone solves shit.

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  4. Dog Gone,

    Men who beat their wives often have no money to take. The solutions that you propose presume rational people being involved, but the problem is that there are plenty of irrational losers wandering about. In their case, force of one kind or another is the only thing that answers the problem.

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  5. Those who don't pay what they owe resulting from divorce proceedings can find themselves behind bars in some cases. They can have their wages garnished, they can have their tax refunds turned over to their spouses, they can lose their property- including vehicles and firearms.

    More violence is not a constructive solution to domestic violence; you are wrong.

    The only correct answer for irrational people is for the rest of us to remain rational, not violent.

    But that doesn't suit your fantasy / myth.

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  6. Guns are bad news for women and children.

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  7. Mikeb302000,

    My partner has no reason to fear my guns, and neither do her (adult) children. I even bought her one of her own, and she took a carry class herself because she was interested in learning. I point this out because we who are responsible get tired of your blanket statements.

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  8. "Men who beat their wives often have no money to take. The solutions that you propose presume rational people being involved, but the problem is that there are plenty of irrational losers wandering about. In their case, force of one kind or another is the only thing that answers the problem."

    And yet you, Greg Camp, insist that those irrational losers are entitled to have any and all gunz that they want. You got your partner a gun and shooting classes and now she carries it everywhere she goes?

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  9. I see that Greg Camp is still busy doing other things; too busy to answer a question about his gunslingin' homelife.

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  10. Greg, You may very well get tired of my blanket statements, but perhaps that's because you realize there's some truth to them.

    You may be the most responsible guy in the world and you may still have problems with your partner or her adult children of that unlucky home invader or that break-in artist who comes when you're out for the night.

    And that's what can happen to YOU, the most responsible guy in the world. What about the others, the ones who may not take it so seriously or who drink a bit too much. And let's not forget the truly unresponsible and reckless guys.

    So yeah, like it or not, and whether it applies to your household or not, guns are bad news for women and children.

    ReplyDelete