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ABC News reported Friday that Karla Jeanne Haskell, 61, told police in San Marcos Calif. on July 3 that she wanted a restraining order against her son after an argument that began when she told him that she was in contact with his ex-wife, court documents state.

She said that he forced her into the garage and tied her wrists with duct tape before taping her to a computer chair.

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“He yelled at me and twice placed his hands around my neck trying to choke me and caused me to pass out,” she said, according to the court documents. “He told me he was going to kill me, my family and any officer who stops him. He hid my telephones. I was taped up for four hours.”

Haskell also had a handful of previous run-ins with law enforcement in Utah, where he had lived with his wife. Neighbors said Haskell’s marriage was so rocky that Stay went to Utah last fall to help her sister escape the relationship and start a new life in Texas.

Stay “was very instrumental in helping her sister get here so she could have a fresh start. Katie’s a spitfire. She has energy to stand up for what she believes is right and true,” said Verena Beckstrand, a neighbour who choked back tears as she talked about the family.

Documents presented at a preliminary court hearing for Haskell on Thursday say the daughter who survived the attack at the home in Spring attempted to close the door after telling Haskell her parents were not there, but he allegedly kicked it in. After the shootings, the teen played dead and called 911 when Haskell left the house, prosecutors said.