Woman denied by welfare services shoots children, kills self

A 38-year-old woman entered the Texas Health and Human Services Commission office in downtown Laredo in Texas on Monday afternoon and demanded to speak to a supervisor, said investigator Joe Baeza of the Laredo Police Department.

She then pulled out a handgun and started walking through the office, threatening several employees.

"She had issues and felt that she had been let down by social services in general. She was making all sorts of outlandish claims," he added.

She took an office supervisor hostage in a room in the office while a SWAT team managed to evacuate the other three dozen people in the office and clear the area.

After two hours of negotiations, the woman allowed the male supervisor to go free, but she remained in the office with her two children, a 10-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl.

"About 11:45 last night, she hung up the phone with negotiators, and a little bit later, negotiators heard three shots," Baeza said on Tuesday. "... she had shot each of her children once and herself once."

The children were airlifted to a hospital in San Antonio in extremely critical condition, he said. The mother was dead at the scene, he said.

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