Woman texts plea for help before being shot

HOUSTON. — A Houston woman being held captive by a man she had once been in a relationship with sent a text to her mother saying she was being threatened with a gun and pleading for help before the man fatally shot her, six children and her husband.

“My heart goes out to the mother who received the text from her daughter that she was in trouble, and the mother was many states away but of course did what any mother would do and called 911,” Harris District Attorney Devon Anderson said on Monday.

Valerie Jackson’s mother placed that call to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office in Houston. Deputies eventually forced their way into the home where a man with a violent criminal history, David Conley, had held the family captive on Saturday but retreated when Conley fired on them.

Hours later, Conley gave himself up, allowing deputies to enter the home and make the gruesome discovery of the bodies. All had been shot in the head and most had been handcuffed.

“Anytime you hear about something that’s this heinous, anytime you hear about the death of this many children in a single event, it is hard. It’s hard,” said Alycia Harvey, the lead prosecutor in the case. — AP.