Police investigating after woman killed, suspect with baby shot himself in north Houston, HPD says

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- A mother is dead after Houston police say her child's father shot and killed her during a dispute in Independence Heights Friday morning.

Officials told ABC13 they received a call at around 8:45 a.m. to a home in the 700 block of E. 36th Street. There, they found the woman dead in the back of the home.

Family members identified the victim as 34-year-old Myanda Thomas.

"To get this call that she's not here is like, 'No way,'" Verna Hall, Thomas' mother, said. "'You're joking.' I just kept saying that this is a bad dream. This is a nightmare."

Members of the gunman's family were in the home when multiple shots were fired. Police said witnesses told them that the unnamed gunman took his and Thomas' 2-year-old son and fled on a bicycle.

Less than two miles away, off the North Freeway frontage road, officers saw a man who matched the suspect's description. Before they could reach him, he shot himself, police said.

"That's another level of 'I don't care,'" Hall said. "'I don't care about nobody but myself.' I feel like, at that point, he was trying to take the easy way out. He killed her. He doesn't want to go back to jail. He doesn't want to face any consequences. Yeah, he's a coward."

The man was taken to the hospital, where he's undergoing surgery. His condition wasn't immediately known.

According to HPD, the child is unharmed and with the gunman's family.

Thomas' family said she was a mother of two and was not in a relationship with the gunman, which was a point of contention.

According to her family, she and her child's father had fought before, but nothing this serious.

"If you know you are in something that is dragging your energy or is not good for you, please, please take my sister as an example and get out of it," Brian Smith, Thomas' sister, said.

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