Three teenagers were shot to death by a 38-year-old man, who also sexually assaulted another 12-year-old girl (who was able to escape the massacre), and then shot himself in a house in Galena Park, a Houston suburb (Texas), around 10:30 p.m. Saturday night (local time), Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez reported this Sunday.
The murdered girls were
19, 14 and 13 years old
, and their identity has not been revealed.
One of them was pregnant, according to the sheriff.
The murders occurred at the home of the killer's girlfriend (whose name has not been revealed).
The agents responded to an alert of sexual assault on a minor and possible shooting;
The 12-year-old girl told officers that the man had told her to run from the house after the assault, and she grabbed her 1-year-old niece to pull her to safety as well.
Inside the house, agents found the bodies of the three teenagers, according to the sheriff.
The 19-year-old girl and the 12-year-old girl were daughters of the murderer's girlfriend, who was not in the house at that time.
The teenager was the mother of the 1-year-old baby who was able to save his life.
The other two fatalities were also family members.
[Latino mother arrested for bringing her 6-year-old son a gun to school]
The alleged perpetrator of a shooting in Mississippi killed his ex-wife and five other people
Feb 18, 202300:25
"He ran out of the residence with no clothes on" but "luckily he was able to grab the 1-year-old girl and fled" to a neighbor's house, who called Galena Park police, the sheriff said.
Both girls were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, according to a Galena Park police statement.
"It doesn't make sense, it's all tragic
," the sheriff said.
All those involved in the El Paso shooting are Latinos and teenagers
Feb 18, 202301:46
The United States is off to a deadly start to 2023 with at least six mass murders (with at least four victims, not counting the perpetrator) in a three-week period in January, according to an Associated Press database.
Six people were killed in a shooting Friday in Mississippi;
and three lost their lives Monday at Michigan State University.