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By The Associated Press
FORT WORTH, Tex. — Police were in a standoff Friday with a man accused of killing his estranged wife and two stepchildren and then dropping off his blood-covered but unharmed 3-year-old daughter at a church, police said. Someone at the church in nearby Arlington called police after seeing the child and hearing the man say he had committed a crime at his house, Fort Worth Police Lt. Dan Draper said.
Fort Worth police then went to the one-story brick house and found the bodies of the woman, her 13-year-old daughter and her 10-year-old son, Draper said. All of them were shot to death, he said.
No names were released.
The several-hour standoff started after the armed man parked in an Arlington driveway near the church and was surrounded by police.
Arlington police were talking to the man over a loudspeaker and said he was agitated.
''He is very worked-up right now,’' said Arlington Police Lt. Blake Miller. ''We are just trying to work through this with him.’'
Fort Worth police were called to the couple’s home at least twice since last month, Draper said.
In late September, the man called and said he was afraid the girls were home alone because no one would answer the door, he said.
A week ago, the woman called police and said her estranged husband was knocking on the door, ringing the doorbell and would not go away. But the man was gone when police arrived, Draper said.
The slayings shocked neighbors in this middle class neighborhood of one-story brick houses and well-kept lawns.
A woman who knew the family arrived at the house Friday afternoon, then began wailing and collapsed in the street after hearing of the killings. As a police officer tried to console her, she screamed: ''Why did he do it? He was so happy yesterday.’'
Neighbors said the children often rode bicycles and walked their dog around the neighborhood. Just last week, the boy was happily playing outside and when he politely asked a neighbor for a glass of water.
''I saw them last week, and they seemed fine,’' said Schawan Smith, who had gotten to know the family because the 3-year-old attended a Fort Worth day car run by Smith’s mother. ''I’m heartbroken because my kids played with them.’'
The man was friendly and often played in the yard with his stepchildren, who called him Daddy, neighbors said.
''He was the friendliest guy around,’' neighbor Tommy Talbott said. ''He was a happy go lucky guy. Every time I saw him, he had a smile.’'
Another neighbor, Paula Bledsoe, said the man bought her parents’ old car and then brought it back to show her elderly mother after he fixed it up. He also frequently asked how her mother was doing.
''It’s a total shock, just terrible. I was praying it wasn’t the kids,’' she said.