Venus man drove to Florida, shot couple, officials say

A gunman believed to be a former correctional officer from Venus drove more than 1,000 miles on Christmas Eve, reaching a small town in north central Florida just after midnight, where he knocked on a door and started shooting, Florida authorities said Friday.

The woman who opened the door was shot four times and was in critical condition Friday. Her husband, who was in a bedroom, was fatally shot, the Ocala Star-Banner reported.

The gunman, identified as Preston Daniel Pollard, 23, a recent graduate of Air Force basic training, drove off. A few hours later, after officers spotted his car headed west on Interstate 10 in the Florida Panhandle, Pollard shot himself. The car was traveling 70 mph and crashed into a wooded area as deputies closed in, officials said.

Authorities believe Pollard was the estranged boyfriend of an 18-year-old woman living in the house in Marion Oaks, Fla.

“He came to Marion County for the sole purpose to commit murder,” said Lauren Lettelier, a spokeswoman with the Marion County Sheriff’s Department in Ocala, Fla.

“And he wanted to kill the wife.”

The man was identified as Richard Hutson, 36, who was pronounced dead at the scene. His wife, Mary Lou Hutson, 55, remained in critical condition Friday at an Ocala hospital, officials said.

The 18-year-old woman and three children were in the house but were not injured.

Authorities believe Pollard left his home in Texas and drove for more than 16 hours on Christmas Eve, arriving in Marion Oaks shortly before 12:30 a.m. Thursday.

It is more than 1,000 miles from Venus to Marion Oaks. Venus is about 31 miles southwest of Fort Worth in Johnson County.

Lettelier said that Pollard started shooting when Mary Lou Hutson opened the door, according to the Ocala Star Banner. The 18-year-old herded the children into a bathroom and locked the door, the newspaper said. She slipped out of the house through a back door and contacted a neighbor who called 911.

Meanwhile, Pollard got back into a 2002 Honda Civic and headed to Texas, authorities said.

When investigators learned that the gunman might be Pollard, Marion County detectives put out an alert for Pollard’s car.

About 5:30 a.m., Pollard’s Civic was spotted westbound on Interstate 10. Deputies with the Walton County Sheriff’s Department and officers with the Florida Highway Patrol closed in. They reported that as they tried to pull him over, Pollard shot himself. The Civic, going about 70 mph, veered 90 degrees and crashed into woods off the interstate in Okaloosa County.

Pollard began working as a correctional officer in Venus last year, but he left the job this year, according to his Facebook page. That could not be confirmed on Friday.

The Mineral Wells Index reported that Pollard recently graduated from Air Force basic training at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland in San Antonio. He was a 2009 graduate of Maypearl High School, and his mother and grandmother are Mineral Wells residents, the newspaper reported.

This story was originally published December 26, 2014 at 4:29 PM with the headline "Venus man drove to Florida, shot couple, officials say."