The JOHNSON Children - Presumed killer- Mother-Tonya Thomas (Deceased) - Port St John FL

Poster's Note: This story is placed here for the time being.
I think we all know the results of any inquest already so it will likely be moved to - Resolved-Other'

The unmistakable sound of gunfire stirred the neighbors early Tuesday. Moments later, there was a knock at the front door.
They opened it to find three children from next door — at least one of
them shot and wounded, authorities said. The neighbors called 911,
grabbed a towel and tried to attend to the kids.

Then, the couple told deputies later, a calm voice in the darkness
summoned the three children back to their home on Bright Avenue in Port
St. John. It was their mother, 33-year-old Tonya Thomas.
Although
the neighbors tried to stop them, the kids walked back obediently. And
once they were inside, Thomas shot and killed them.
Brevard County
Sheriff's deputies were just arriving at 4:54 a.m. Tuesday when they
heard the shots that ended the lives of Joel, Jazzlyn and Jaxs Johnson.
They were 12, 13 and 15. Deputies think Thomas shot Jaxs while he slept.
Their oldest sibling, 17-year-old Pebbles Johnson, was stretched out in
the front yard motionless when deputies arrived. They drove onto the
lawn and loaded her into the back of a deputy's cruiser, but by the time
they could get her to paramedics waiting nearby, she was dead.

When deputies approached the home again just after 5 a.m., a person with
a gun they later realized was Johnson came out but quickly turned and
went back inside.
At 5:26 a.m., one final shot rang out.
After killing all four of her children, Thomas shot herself to death, said Lt. Tod Goodyear, a sheriff's spokesman.
"It appears all these children were dead at or before the time deputies
arrived," he said during a news conference. "Everything points to her."
It was worst multiple homicide in Brevard County since William Cruse
killed six people, including two police officers, in April 1987 in Palm Bay.
according to Florida Today. Cruse, who wounded 14 other people during
his shooting spree, died of natural causes on Florida's death row in
2009.
Detectives late Tuesday were still piecing together the scene but were no closer to understanding why Thomas opened fire.
"I'm a father. I've got kids. I cannot comprehend a parent doing this
to their children...to call them back into the slaughter," Goodyear
said. "It's beyond anything I've ever seen."
Goodyear said that
about 4 a.m. Tuesday, Thomas sent a text message to a family friend
asking that the friend tell Thomas's mother what happened and saying she
wanted to be cremated along with her children. But the friend didn't
see the note until well after the shootings, detectives said.

Thomas and the children's father had recently separated. He could
scarcely take the news when deputies told him what happened, officials
said.
Little is known about the family's history, although Goodyear said
they had been called to the home previously for domestic disturbances.
The last time deputies responded was in April, when Jaxs was arrested
on a domestic-violence charge against his mother. Details were not
available Tuesday.
Goodyear said the house was known as
"problematic" by neighbors, who said many arguments and disturbances
originated there. The kids' father moved out a few months ago. The boys
were known for causing criminal mischief in the community.
Thomas' mother, Helen Wakefield, would not comment.
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-05-15/news/os-swat-shooting-brevard-20120515_1_swat-unit-injuries-shooting

Two of the children had been injured and ran to the neighbor's for help. The mother called them back home, and they obeyed. She murdered them.

Disgusting. I will never understand

It seems unthinkable: A mother shoots one of
her children. What happens next is even more unfathomable — three
children who fled the house return to their homicidal mother.
All of them paid the price with their lives.
The
Florida case of Tonya Thomas, who fatally shot her four children this
week, then killed herself, is a rare category of tragedy, experts say.
The children, ages 12 to 17, were older than most who are murdered by a
parent. Thomas also used a gun, a weapon more likely found in the hands
of fathers who kill.
Perhaps the most
improbable fact in the story is that three of the children ran to a
neighbors' home only to return to danger moments later at Thomas'
command, when she beckoned the children to come home, researchers said.
"She
knew what was going to happen when those young ones came back inside,
and she was comfortable with that decision," said Mary Ellen O'Toole, a
retired FBI
profiler who worked on many cases of family killings. "She couldn't
deal anymore, but she couldn't deal without having the people she loved
the most with her."
Thomas of Port St. John, Fla., murdered her four children, Pebbles Johnson, 17; Jaxs Johnson, 15; Jazzlyn Johnson, 13; and Joel Johnson, 12.
Her
children's decision to return home most likely means they were
accustomed to seeing their mother act unstable and may have heard her
threaten to kill them and herself several times before, O'Toole said.
"They didn't want their mom to be alone," she said. "There may have been some guilt, some loyalty and certainly fear there."
A
911 call released Wednesday revealed initial confusion over who was
shooting, and that a neighbor refused to admit three of the children
trying to get into their house for safety. The caller warned one of the
children not to enter her home: "Get back, you're not coming in our
house," she can be heard saying.
Her husband
told the dispatcher: "They tried to break in our front door to get in, I
guess to try to get away from her — whoever's got the gun."
Each year, 250 to 350 children are murdered by parents, said Phillip Resnick, psychiatry professor at Case Western Reserve University who started studying "maternal filicide" in the 1960s.
Resnick
said Tuesday's shootings in Port St. John appear to be "altruistic" —
where a mother believes death is in the child's best interest. "It's a
murder out of love rather than a murder out of hate," he said. "It
becomes an extended suicide."
He added four
other reasons a parent may kill their child: a fatal battering, a
psychotic attack with no motive, an interest in "getting rid" of the
kids and revenge on a spouse.
Michelle Oberman, co-author of two books on mothers who killed their children, also says Thomas falls in the loving category.
Thomas,
33, reportedly sent a text to a friend around 3 a.m. saying she wanted
to be cremated with her children. The friend did not receive the message
until much later.
"It's too simple to say
they are monsters who hate their babies," Oberman said. "These are moms
who are desperate, who are sick. … (Thomas) loves her babies. She wants
to be cremated with her babies."
Court records
portray Thomas as a woman who struggled to control her son, Jaxs,
including one incident in which she told police the boy kicked her and
threw her to the floor after she tried to wake him for school. The teen
was to appear in juvenile court on a battery charge Tuesday morning but
was shot to death hours before.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-05-16/mother-kill-kids-florida/55021112/1

DCF: Past cases don't show why woman killed children, herself
Tonya Thomas shot, killed her 4 kids at Port St. John home

Published On: May 18 2012 12:43:27 PM EDT
Updated On: May 18 2012 01:16:10 PM EDT

ORLANDO, Fla. - The Department of Children and Families on Friday released reports that document some past problems involving a Port St. John woman who fatally shot her four children and killed herself, but they don't shed any light into why the shootings occurred.

Tonya Thomas shot her two daughters, 17-year-old Pebbles Johnson and 13-year-old Jazzlyn Johnson, and her two sons, 15-year-old Jaxs Johnson and 12-year-old Joel Johnson, Tuesday morning at their home on Bright Avenue.

Brevard County sheriff's officials said the motive for the shooting is unknown.

"I don't believe the information in the case files gives answers to why the shootings occurred, which is what so many are asking right now," said DCF spokeswoman Carrie Hoeppner.

The DCF first became involved with Thomas in 2000 after a report of domestic violence dispute between her and the father of her children, Joe Johnson. Two days later, the children were removed from their home for a month.

"That decision was made after domestic violence incident between mom and the father, and mom went back into the home in violation of an injunction against the father," Hoeppner said.

In 2007, allegations were made that Thomas' oldest daughter forced other children to kiss her in a bathroom stall at school. Other students complained that she bullied them, so she was moved to a different classroom, officials said.

In April, Jaxs Johnson was not picked up from a detention center after being arrested on a charge of battering his mother. The case was closed by DCF five days before the shootings.

The DCF said Thomas was in the process of getting counseling for her family and looking into other options, such as finding a mentor for Jaxs Johnson.

The investigator who worked the case took several days off after the deaths because he was so distraught, the DCF said.

http://www.clickorlando.com/news/DCF-Past-cases-don-t-show-why-woman-killed-children-herself/-/1637132/13479650/-/148a34hz/-/index.html

Brevard mom who killed 4 kids, herself was victim of abuse

By Kelli Kennedy, The Associated Press
3:20 p.m. EST, May 18, 2012

MIAMI — A child-protective investigator who spoke to a Brevard County mother days before she fatally shot herself and her four children said there was nothing to signal the massacre about to occur.

But hundreds of documents detailing the family's history released Friday also show Tonya Thomas of Port St. John was a woman trapped in a cycle of domestic violence.

In 2000, the children watched as their father, Joe Johnson, yelled at Thomas for not making dinner, then punched and kicked her, knocking her into a wall. The children were removed from their parents' home for a month but were returned despite objections by the Department of Children and Families.

Thomas also once violated a court order and returned home to her husband.

An investigator recently interviewed the children, and all said they felt safe in their home.

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-05-18/news/os-brevard-mom-kids-dead-abuse-20120518_1_brevard-mom-brevard-county-children

OMG this is such a sad, sad tragedy Can you imagine being that neighbor?? heart breaking

Funeral today for 4 children killed by their mother

Posted: May 21, 2012 9:50 AM CDT
Updated: May 21, 2012 9:51 AM CDT

A funeral for the four Brevard County children who were shot to death by their mother takes place this afternoon.

The funeral for 17-year-old Pebbles Johnson, 15-year-old Jaxs Johnson, 13-year-old Jazlyn Johnson and 12-year-old Joel Johnson will be held at Temple Baptist Church Titusville.

The children were killed by their mother Tonya Thomas last week, before she killed herself.

New autopsy reports show the children were hit by a total of 18 bullets. Investigators say that means Thomas reloaded her gun three times.

http://www.myfoxorlando.com/story/18571937/funeral-today-for-4-children-killed-by-their-mother

Monday, May 21, 2012
Killer Florida mother shot her 4 kids 18 times

She used jacketed, hollow-point bullets, which cause more damage than full-metal jacket rounds.

Tonya Thomas shot her four children 18 times in Tuesday's massacre,
and two of them were shot as the gun pressed against their chests,
according to the medical examiner's report. She used jacketed,
hollow-point bullets, which cause more damage than full-metal jacket
rounds, and used a single Taurus .38-caliber revolver, which she would
have had to reload three times. About 36 minutes passed from when the
first shots were reported to 911 until the last shot was heard, Florida Today reports. (Thomas reportedly smoked a cigarette after killing her children and before killing herself.) Previous reports fromthe AP and Fox News paint a tragic picture of the family's history:

• Joe Johnson, father to the murdered children
  Joel, Jazlin, Jaxs, and Pebbles, was arrested after allegedly punching
  and kicking Thomas in 2000. Thomas and the children eventually began
  living with Johnson again, leading the Department of Children and
  Families to remove the children from the home but return them a month
  later.
  
• The couple worked with a caseworker and investigators said the
  children appeared "bonded" to the parents and healthy, but Thomas was
  arrested in 2002 for allegedly striking Johnson. The charge was later
  dropped.
  
• In the months before the shooting, it was not clear how much contact
  Johnson had with the family. In April, authorities were called to the
  home on three successive days: The first day, Thomas said her son threw a
  bicycle through a window; the next day, she said her son kicked her and
  punched her as she tried to wake him up for school; the third day,
  investigators responded to allegations of inadequate supervision.
  
• Also in April, son Jaxs was arrested for battery against his mother.
  After she did not pick him up from juvenile detention, child welfare
  investigators looked into the home situation and saw no signs that the
  children were in danger. The investigator last spoke to Thomas on May 10
  and the case was closed May 13, just two days before the massacre.
  
• The daughter of a neighbor says the boys had been
  causing problems on the street, shooting BB guns at another house and
  threatening to set it on fire. A wrenching account of
  one of the 911 calls reveals that neighbors weren't sure who was doing
  the shooting—Thomas or one of her kids—and a crying female caller said
  at one point, "I knew this was gonna happen." She also refused to let
  the children enter her home, unsure who had the gun. "Get back, you're
  not coming in our house," she can be heard saying.
  

http://www.wtam.com/cc-common/news/sections/newsarticle.html?feed=104668&article=10141410#ixzz1vasLoIse

This evil POS looks exactly what I would imagine a monster from hell to look like.

May God keep her from the souls of her murder victims for the duration of eternity.

Evil beyond description or comprehension.