Pct. 4 deputies responded to 2 disturbance calls hours before deadly shooting in Atascocita: Records

Daniela Hurtado Image
Friday, January 26, 2024
Atascocita deadly shooting in hands of Harris County grand jury
Frederick Thomas was killed by his common-law wife while he was trying to break into their home, authorities said. But questions still remain about the situation.

ATASCOCITA, Texas (KTRK) -- The case of a man shot and killed while kicking in the door to his home on Woodlace Drive will be sent to a grand jury.

ABC13 first brought you the story last week when deputies said his common-law wife was accused of shooting and killing him at their home in Atascocita.

Last week, ABC13 first learned through the Harris County Sheriff that Precinct 4 constables had responded to the home two times on Jan. 15 for disturbances, and in the early hours of Jan. 16, the deadly shooting happened.

It's information the Harris County Precinct 4 Constable's Office would only give ABC13 if we made a public records request, so we did.

The event report from Precinct 4 confirms they responded three times to the home in the last year. Two of which were hours before this deadly shooting took place. The third? A situation not relating to the couple.

The first call to the home was for a verbal argument on that Monday. The second, according to records, was for a physical situation.

Precinct 4 records state the Harris County District Attorney's Office "declined charges" on the physical altercation case.

However, the Harris County DA's Office confirmed with ABC13 that they didn't accept charges that Monday afternoon because constable deputies needed to investigate more since they said there wasn't enough evidence to support the charges.

When ABC13 asked Precinct 4 about this last week, they didn't answer our questions. On Thursday, nine days after the shooting, they told ABC13 they would run our questions to their supervisor and get back to us. They haven't.

At the center of this is a man killed, who deputies say kicked in a back door in the home he and his partner shared.

The family of 39-year-old Frederick Thomas said they want answers.

"I don't know, my son walking in the door didn't know his life was going to be taken," Thomas' mom, Carol Soria, said.

Thomas' sister Bianca says her brother was supposed to stay at her place that night after a disagreement with his common-law wife. She says he first stopped at his home on Woodlace Drive to get his belongings.

Frederick Thomas Sr., Thomas' dad, said when his son arrived at the Woodlace Drive home, the locks on the door were changed, and she was ignoring his calls.

ABC13 has tried to talk to Frederick Thomas's common-law wife about all of this and shared our contact number. So far, it appears she's not ready to share more about what happened that day.

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