911 call in Conroe shooting: 'I'm too scared to go out of my closet'

CONROE, Texas (KTRK) -- Conroe police are still not saying what led a man to kill the mother of his ex-girlfriend.

They have released the 911 call from the former girlfriend, who was requesting help while hiding inside her parents' home.

"We need someone fast. We need police. Hurry," Tara Russell said on the phone to dispatchers. The 24-year-old told authorities she was hiding in a closet in the house in the 500 block of Hildred Avenue around 1:30 p.m. Monday.

"I can hear screaming. I'm fine, but I'm hiding in the closet right now. I'm too scared to go out," she said. She told dispatchers the attacker was her ex-boyfriend, Joseph Alain.

"I can hear like beating and stuff going around. He just randomly showed up at my parents' house...I don't know what's going on. I'm too scared to go out of my closet," she said.

As police arrived, she did leave the closet. Eyewitnesses said she ran from the home.

"She just came running...yelling...screaming," said neighbor Tony Lister.

Lister had just come outside to see what the commotion was. He said Russell ran by him into his house, yelling frantically.

"'Call the cops! Call the cops!' I kept telling her: 'They're here. They're here. Just go in the house! The back bedroom,'" he said.

Police said they heard a commotion in the Russell home upon arrival and that Alain retreated into the house as they entered, grabbing a handgun. Officers opened fire, killing him.

Only then did they find the body of 52-year-old Denise Russell. Detectives aren't saying what motivated her murder.

As they searched the house for evidence, they also found a 5-year-old boy alive and still hiding inside. He's Tara Russell's son. Police said he was unhurt.

The officer who shot and killed Alain has been placed on paid leave pending the outcome of the investigation.

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