COLDSPRING, Texas (AP) _ Dispatch records and audio recordings appear to conflict with a southeast Texas sheriff captain’s claim that deputies were too busy to respond to a call from a home where four people were later found shot to death.
San Jacinto County sheriff’s deputies didn’t reach the home near Coldspring, about 60 miles north of Houston, for seven hours after the first report of trouble. The adoptive mother of Oliver Bills Jr. reported that she was concerned about her son’s behavior.
Records obtained by the Houston Chronicle show four hours during that period passed without significant police activity. In an audio recording, sheriff’s Capt. Carl Jones tells a dispatcher not to make a welfare check.
Authorities say Oliver Bills Jr. fatally shot his girlfriend, her 4-year-old daughter and his adopted mother before killing himself in November.