AVILA Children - 2, 3, 4, 5 yo - Bay City TX

Bay City Police Say Shooter Was Children's Father

All children dead, mom in critical condition

Updated: Thursday, 01 Dec 2011, 11:22 PM CST
Published : Thursday, 01 Dec 2011, 12:23 PM CST
SALLY MACDONALD
Reporter

BAY CITY, Texas - Police have identified the man who opened fire on his own family inside their Bay City home. Four children were killed in the shooting.

Police say Jose Avila, 24, committed suicide after shooting his four children and his wife at their home on Wednesday afternoon.

As of Thursday morning, the mother remained hospitalized in Matagorda County and was listed in critical condition.

The four children were also sent to the hospital where two of them later died.

The remaining two were pronounced dead Thursday afternoon.

The mayor of Bay City says the community will soon schedule a candlelight vigil for the murdered children.




http://www.myfoxhouston.com/dpp/news/local/111201-bay-city-police-say-shooter-was-childrens-father#ixzz1fdTHRRbU

Texas woman shot with her 4 children had left husband before

December 2, 2011 | 9:35 am

A Texas woman struggling to survive Friday after she and her children were shot by her husband
had reportedly left the man before and complained of abuse.

On Wednesday, police say, Jose Avila, 24, shot his wife and four children, then himself. Avila died. Two of his sons, ages 3 and 5, died soon after at a Houston hospital. The two other children, a 2-year-old girl and 4-year-old boy, were placed on life support but died Thursday, according to the Bay City Tribune.

Their mother remained at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center in Houston on Friday. Police have not officially released the names of the victims, but co-workers and neighbors told the Associated Press that the woman's name is Laura Gonzalez.

A spokeswoman for the hospital said Friday that the woman remained in critical condition, according to the AP.

Co-workers said that Gonzalez had long struggled with domestic violence, adding that an assault reported just before Thanksgiving had prompted her to stay in a battered women’s shelter.

“I asked her how she was doing because I knew she was at the crisis center. She said she was trying to make something of her freedom and a better life for herself
and her children,” Alejandro Gonzalez, a fellow waiter at La Casona, the Mexican restaurant where Gonzalez worked, told the AP.

“She wanted to make a better life for his kids because they see all the violence,” he said.

Waitress Ruby Gomez told the news service that Gonzalez had been threatened by her husband, and worried he might attack again. She said Avila had once locked her in the house and gone to work, forcing her to escape through a window and stay at a shelter. She returned home because “he convinced her that he was going to change and that he really loved his kids,” Gomez said.

Although Gonzalez left the mobile home she shared with her husband after reporting the most recent assault, Bay City police Lt. Andrew Lewis told the AP that she refused to press charges.

Wednesday’s violence unfolded just as two nearby schools were letting out on a quiet street in Bay City, a town of 17,000 about 65 miles southwest of Houston. The couple had started arguing inside the trailer, and Avila shot his wife twice, Lewis told the AP. She then ran to the front yard, where Avila shot her a third time before turning his gun on the children.

Some neighbors said they saw no evidence of domestic violence. Isuro Perez told the AP that he had heard the couple arguing, but nothing violent.

“He always plays soccer out here in this field out here, plays soccer with his kids,” Perez said, adding that they appeared to be, "a happy family.”

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2011/12/texas-woman-shot-with-children-had-left-husband-before.html

Bay City 911 caller: 'The babies, he killed them!'


by Jeremy Desel / KHOU 11 News
khou.com

Updated
Wednesday, Dec 7 at 1:18 PM

BAY CITY, Texas—Police have released a 911 call of a Bay City
shooting that left four children dead and their mother in serious
condition.

Last Wednesday, Jose Avila, 24, shot the mother of his children,
Laura Gonzalez, outside the family’s trailer. Then, in front of several
junior high school students, Avila killed his four children, ages 2, 3,
4 and 5, before committing suicide.

A young girl in the area who witnessed the incident was one of the
first to call police. Police released her 911 call Tuesday morning.

“Bay City Police Department. This is Maggie,” the dispatcher answers.

“We need a officer right now, there is this man shooting at this lady. We need a cop,” the caller says.

Under all the pressure, the young caller does not waiver.

“We have babies around here, there are babies in the car and he won’t give them to the mom,” the caller says.

“Is she hurt?” asks the dispatcher. “She got shot?”

“Yes, she is bleeding everywhere. She can’t stand up, she is fainting,” says the young caller.

“OK, We’ll send EMS out there,” says the dispatcher.

“We are walking home from school. Me and my friends. He just started shooting her,” the caller says.

More shots were then fired with the girl still on the phone.

“He is shooting the kids! He is shooting the kids!” the caller says.

“He is shooting her again?” the dispatcher asks.

“Yes! No, No he killed the babies. The babies! He killed them!,” the
caller says. “He killed himself too! Oh my God, the babies!”

“OK, stay on the line please,” the dispatcher says.

The phone call then ended.

Bay City police on Monday said Gonzalez was upgraded to serious condition and remains hospitalized.

Co-workers at Ricardo's restaurant are holding a fundraiser barbecue for Gonzalez Wednesday from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.

A fund has also been set up for Gonzalez at Wells Fargo Bank in Bay
City Texas. Donations can be made to the Bay City Tragedy Benefit.

A candlelight vigil in memory of the four children will be held from 6
p.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday night at the Matagorda County Courthouse.

http://www.khou.com/news/local/911-call-released-of-Bay-City-shooting-killing-4-children-135147623.html