Houston News: Suspect in standoff apparently takes own life

It was a tense situation on the city's southwest side Tuesday morning after police were called to a shooting scene reports Houston News. It happened just after 5am at Villa Madrid apartments on Club Creek and Beechnut on the southwest side. Police were trying to negotiate with a man they say shot his girlfriend, all while they believed a child was inside.

Police say the man shot his girlfriend in the neck and a wrist. She managed to escape from the apartment, but the shooter was inside with the victim's five-year-old daughter. Once it was over, they found the little girl safe and asleep.

Dayana Gomez says she could tell something wasn't quite right Monday night. She was caring for two of her aunt's young children when her aunt's boyfriend kept calling.
"He would say, 'I don't know where she's at' and I kept on asking him and he would say the same thing. And then he would call and say, 'Are you sleeping?' And then he would hang up on me," said Gomez.

Then a disturbing call came from her aunt. She'd been shot in the wrist and jaw and Gomez knew her five-year-old cousin was still in the apartment."I didn't hear anything, but my uncles heard two or three gunshots," said Gomez.

Police say when they arrived, they didn't know what was going on inside. For more than two hours, they tried to make contact with the shooter while trying to protect all the neighbors.
"We really don't know what to expect. The officer, after the first three shots, after he took cover and the female came out, the officer did hear one more shot," said Captain Dwayne Ready with the Houston Police Department. "But we don't know. We haven't seen any movement."
After more than two hours, police went in and found the suspect dead. They believe he killed himself.

Gomez and the rest of the family say it didn't have to end this way.
"I'm relieved my aunt and cousin are safe, but you know, he's dead," said Gomez.
And they are still trying to figure out why the man they describe as a nice guy turned violent.
"He would help her out with everything. But it's just that we didn't know he was really aggressive when things didn't work out the way he wanted to," said Gomez.

Authorities say the five-year-old girl seems to understand something isn't right, but they believe she'll be OK. The woman's condition is not known.

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