By Claire Z. Cardona
The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS — The woman who fatally shot a Dallas officer Saturday before killing herself told a 911 operator she killed him before he could hit her again, police said.
Otto Machelle Thomas, 42, called 911 about 6:15 p.m. from Officer Larry Tuttle’s apartment in the 9700 block of Forest Lane to report she had just committed murder, Assistant Chief Randy Blankenbaker said.
Blankenbaker said Thomas told 911, “He was getting ready to hit me again and I just went off. I killed him because he was going to hit me again.”
Thomas said that Tuttle had been her boyfriend and that she needed someone to come get her 6-year-old daughter, he said.
When police arrived, they repeatedly told Thomas from outside the apartment to put the gun away and unlock the door.
After she walked away from the window where she was standing, police heard a gunshot, Blankenbaker said.
SWAT officers entered the apartment and found Tuttle and Thomas dead. Thomas’ daughter, who was uninjured, was found in the bedroom, Blankenbaker said. Police and Child Protective Services are working to get her to Thomas’ family in Mississippi.
Tuttle lived alone in the far northeast Dallas apartment. Police believe Thomas, who recently lived in an apartment in Arlington, was homeless. It was unclear if she was staying with him.
There had been no previous disturbance or domestic violence calls involving the couple, Blankenbaker said.
In a short item in Ebony magazine in 2001, Thomas was described as a military police officer in the Army who counseled youth groups and enjoyed spending time with her son. She was living in Kansas City, Kan., at the time.
She had no apparent criminal record aside from a 1996 harassment charge in Bell County that was dismissed.
Tuttle, who was on the Dallas force for six years, was assigned to the south central patrol division.
On its Facebook page, the Dallas Police Association on Monday called him a “great officer who will never be forgotten.”
Tuttle’s wife, Kandie Morgan, told KXAS-TV (NBC5) that she and her husband were separated. She said he had been a great father to their 10-year-old son.
Copyright 2015 The Dallas Morning News