12-year-old escapes before mom, younger sister die in murder-suicide, Dallas cops say

A mother shot her 8-year-old daughter, then turned the gun on herself following a SWAT standoff in Texas, police say.

Around 12:35 a.m. Monday, police responded to a family violence call near the Redbird neighborhood in Dallas, WFAA reported. A man told police that he’d gotten in an argument with a woman who got upset and then fired a gun at him, according to the outlet.

At the home, police found the woman, 35, barricaded inside with her two children — an 8-year-old girl and 12-year-old boy, WFAA reported.

Just before 3 a.m., the boy escaped from the house unharmed, KXAS reported.

A standoff between the woman and police went on for several hours before the SWAT team tried to break into the home, according to KXAS. The woman fired a gun at the team, hitting one officer in the arm before the team left the house to regroup, police said.

The SWAT team attempted to enter the home a second time after hearing two shots, KTVT reported. Police found the woman and the girl shot dead in an apparent murder-suicide, according to the outlet.

“No matter how much violence we respond to in a city, and throughout my almost 22 years in law enforcement, these kinds of scenarios are the absolute worst,” Dallas Police Chief U. Renee Hall said, according to the outlet.

Police have not released the names of the victims.