Tweet
Mother Shoots 2 at State Office, Then Kills Herself
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: December 6, 2011
SAN ANTONIO (AP) — A woman who for months was unable to qualify for food stamps pulled a gun in a state welfare office on Monday and staged a seven-hour standoff with the police that ended with her shooting her two children before killing herself, officials said.
The children, a 10-year-old son and a 12-year-old daughter, were in critical condition Tuesday. The mother was identified as Rachelle Grimmer, 38. A police investigator, Joe Baeza, said Ms. Grimmer had recently moved from Zanesville, Ohio.
Ms. Grimmer first applied for food stamps in July but was denied because she did not turn in enough information, said Stephanie Goodman, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Health and Human Services.
Ms. Goodman said it was not immediately clear what information was missing. She said the Grimmers’ last contact with the agency appeared to be a phone call in mid-November. When the family entered the Laredo office on Monday, shortly before 5 p.m., Ms. Grimmer asked to speak to a new caseworker, not the one whom she worked with previously, Ms. Goodman said.
Ms. Goodman said Ms. Grimmer was taken to a private room and she showed a gun and the standoff began.
Police negotiators tried to stay on the phone with Ms. Grimmer throughout the evening, but she kept hanging up, Mr. Baeza said. Around 7:45 p.m., she let a supervisor go unharmed. After hanging up the phone around 11:45 p.m., the police heard three shots. A SWAT team found Ms. Grimmer’s body and her two wounded children.
Comment