Katie Stay and her husband Stephen Stay were identified as the two adults shot dead by Ron Lee Haskell in Texas on Wednesday night.
Haskell also killed four children--two boys, ages 4 and 14, and two girls, ages 7 and 9--inside their home in Spring.
Police were alerted to the situation by Haskell’s 15-year-old niece, who was shot in the head and played dead before calling 911.
The girl told police that Haskell was dressed as a FedEx worker when he knocked on the door of the family’s home and asked for her parents. She said they weren’t home.
Haskell came back a little later and knocked on the door again. He told the girl his name. She recognized him as his “ex-uncle,” and tried to close the door, reported Click2Houston. But Haskell kicked the door in and tied her up, and tied up the rest of the family when they came home.
Neighbors embrace each other following a shooting Wednesday, July 9, 2014, in Spring, Texas. (AP Photo/Houston Chronicle, Brett Coomer)
(Harris County Sheriff’s Office)
Law enforcement officers surround a shooting suspect Wednesday, July 9, 2014, in Spring, Texas. After hours of waiting and negotiations, the man, suspected in the slayings of six people, including four children, emerged from his car, raised his hands and sank to his knees as deputies placed him under arrest. (AP Photo/Houston Chronicle, Brett Coomer)
Haskell asked them where he could find his estranged wife but they said they didn’t know. He shot them all “execution-style” in the back of the head. The bullet grazed the girl’s temple, so she played dead and then called police.
Police believe that Haskell was on his way to the home of more relatives, and credit the girl with saving their lives. Police arrived at the house just before Haskell, prompting a chase that eventually led to his surrender.
A woman who lived nearby the Stays told the Houston Chronicle that the family was “close-knit.”
“It was a Mormon family,” she said. “They were very sweet and their kids were very shy. This is a sad, sad day.”
See an Associated Press update below.
FedEx: Shooting suspect once did work for company
SPRING, Texas—FedEx says the suspect in the Houston-area shooting that left four children and their parents dead once worked on behalf of the company but has not since January.
Harris County Precinct 4 Constable Ron Hickman says 33-year-old Ronald Lee Haskell was wearing a FedEx shirt when he appeared Wednesday at the home in the northern Houston suburb of Spring. Hickman says he “came in the guise of a FedEx driver wearing a FedEx shirt.”
FedEx spokeswoman Erin Truxal said Thursday that Haskell was a delivery driver employed by a FedEx service provider.
KPRC-TV in Houston reports that a court hearing Thursday revealed Haskell kicked in the home’s door when a 15-year-old girl attempted to close it. The girl was wounded in the shooting and her siblings and parents killed.
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