Texas mother accused of fatally shooting her 2 daughters
FULSHEAR, Texas -- A friend of the mother accused of shooting and killing her two daughters in Fort Bend County is now reacting to the murder mystery.
"This is not the Christy that I know. It's just not," Catherine Knowles said. "I thought it was the wrong person. It had to be."
Knowles instantly became close friends with Christy Sheats last summer.
"When you meet her, you know she's a mom within the first minute," she said.
She says Sheats always spoke proudly about her two daughters, 22-year-old Taylor Sheats and 17-year-old Madison Sheats. That's why what happened Friday night is such a shock.
"I couldn't imagine anything in her life that could've made her snap," Knowles said. "Your own children, I don't know what could possibly go through someone's head."
Sheats is accused of fatally shooting both Taylor and Madison before a Fulshear police officer shot and killed her when she refused to drop her weapon.
Only the husband and father, Jason Sheats, was not harmed.
An eyewitness saw Taylor, Madison and Jason running out of their home. According to the eyewitness, the young women were already wounded.
The neighbor said Taylor collapsed on the street and he saw Christy come outside with a gun and then go back inside to reload. When she emerged again, she shot Madison in the back, according to the eyewitness.
Deputies said a dispute lead up to the shooting.
Another neighbor, who said she was close to the family, told KTRK that the couple had recently reunited after being separated. She said the shooting happened on Jason's birthday.
Taylor was an artist who loved to draw and was a caregiver, according to her Facebook account. Madison was set to be a senior in high school and was a babysitter.
The Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office had been called to their home multiple times for Sheats having a "mental crisis" in the past.
Now, her friend is left wondering if she could have made a difference.
"I wish there was something I could've done," Knowles said.
