The teenager was able to call police and later warned that her father planned to go to her grandparents' home to kill them, said Deputy Thomas Gilliland of the Harris County Sheriff's Office.
The suspected gunman eventually surrendered after a three-hour standoff with deputies who had cornered him in a nearby street.
Gilliand said there were "two hours of constant talking with a man armed with a pistol to his head and who had just killed six people."
Killed were two boys, aged 4 and 14; two girls, aged 7 and 9; a 39-year-old man and a 33-year-old woman, Gilliland said. The gunman and his wife are estranged, and she was out of state, Gilliland said. All of the children were theirs. Two of the dead children were adopted, he said.
"It appears this stems from a domestic issue with a breakup in the family, from what our witness has told us," Assistant Chief Deputy Constable Mark Herman of the Harris County Precinct 4 Constable's Office told reporters. He did not explain further.
By Ruchi Singh
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
