12-year-old girl shot by her mother in food stamps stand-off loses fight for life

Brother, 10, is still in critical condition

A 12-year-old girl who was shot by her mother during a standoff at a Texas welfare office has died.

A Laredo police spokesman said Ramie Grimmer died yesterday at a San Antonio hospital.

Her 10-year-old brother is still in a critical condition.



Dead: Ramie Marie Grimmer updated her Facebook status to say 'may die 2day' before being shot by her mother during a police stand-off in Texas. She died on Wednesday.

Their mother, Rachelle Grimmer, 38, was found dead on Monday inside the office in Laredo.

Authorities say the 38-year-old killed herself after shooting her children during a seven-hour standoff with police.

The girl's Facebook profile had been updated to read 'may die 2day' just hours before the shootings.

The family had been denied food stamps.

The Texas Department of Health and Human Services says the agency rejected Grimmer's application because she did not submit enough information.

Grimmer had been embroiled in a battle with the welfare department to try to gain benefits for her family since July.

Status updates: The Facebook profile of Ramie Marie Grimmer who was reportedly shot and critically wounded by her mother in Texas

She took her children to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission office in Laredo on Monday at 5pm and demanded to speak to a supervisor.

Grimmer then pulled out a handgun and began threatening several employees, authorities said.



She held two employees hostage until a male supervisor stepped in and stayed with Grimmer while she released the other workers.

The mother took the man and her two children into another room while a SWAT team managed to evacuate 30 people.

Facebook friends: An image posted on the profile of Ramie Marie Grimmer shortly before she was shot by her mother at a welfare department in Texas

She released the supervisor at 7.45pm but remained in the building with her children.



During the seven-hour stand-off, the apparent Facebook profile of Ramie Marie Grimmer was updated regularly.

At 7.50pm, the girl wrote: 'May die 2day' on her wall. She then accepted a friend request before writing 'I'm bored' at 10.34pm and tagged her location as Laredo, Texas.



The girl then 'liked' the band Evanescence and wrote 'ahhhhhhhhhhahhhhhh' at 10.52pm.

Standoff: The SWAT team moves in on the office building

At 11.28pm, she wrote 'tear gas seriasly'. [sic]

Hostage negotiators were in communication with the woman but it was intermittent as she frequently hung up, according to police.

Joe Baeza of the Laredo Police Department reported on Tuesday: ‘About 11.45 last night, she hung up the phone with negotiators, and a little bit later, negotiators heard three shots.'

The SWAT team at the front of the building heard children crying and officers stormed in, finding the three in the front office.

On the line: Laredo is in Texas, right on the Mexican border

The children were airlifted to a hospital in San Antonio in critical condition . The mother was dead at the scene.

Officer Baeza said: ‘She had issues and felt that she had been let down by social services in general.

'She was making all sorts of outlandish claims.'

Authorities said Grimmer, from Ohio, had arrived in Laredo about eight months ago and had lived with her kids in several locations around the border city.

The children's grandmother, Mary Lee Shepherd said Grimmer 'was mentally ill' and she tried to get her help.

Investigator: Police officer Joe Baeza said that the woman's case is under investigation, along with her application for food stamps

Shepherd said her son Dale Grimmer, the children's father, was flying Wednesday from Montana to San Antonio hospital to be with the children.

Dale and Rachelle Grimmer divorced six or seven years ago, after Rachelle and the children moved from Montana to Ohio, Shepherd said.

Dale Grimmer also moved to Ohio and was able to visit the children from time to time, but Rachelle Grimmer moved and did not inform him or the court, Shepherd said.

Shepherd said she or her son contacted social workers in Montana twice and in Ohio once because they were concerned that Rachelle Grimmer could harm the children.

Shepherd declined to detail her former daughter-in-law's mental problems or say what caused them to make those calls.

Shepherd's claims could not immediately be verified Wednesday with state child welfare officials in Montana and Ohio.



However, Texas Department of Family and Protective Services reported finding two cases Wednesday involving Grimmer and her children.

In the first case, reported Sept. 15, 2010, the department received a possible neglect report after Rachelle Grimmer and her two children were found living in a tent on a South Texas beach.

Investigators found no evidence of neglect and closed the case, spokesman Patrick Crimmins said.

In a report made last June, Corpus Christi police said Rachelle Grimmer had come to police headquarters with her two children and reported that she had been a domestic violence victim.



Caseworkers checked on her and the children, determined the children were not at risk and took no further action, Crimmins said.

He said the findings had been delayed until Wednesday because Grimmer's surname was spelled differently in the department database, and she was listed under a different first name.



Stephanie Goodman, a spokeswoman for the Health and Human Services Commission, confirmed that Grimmer applied for food stamps in July and was denied.



Ms Goodman said the woman's application was incomplete and that she was not sure whether the woman qualified for assistance.



‘We're still trying to track down exactly what happened with the case,’ Ms Goodman told Reuters.

‘As you can probably imagine, I think she had a lot of other issues she was dealing with as well.’

She said the commission will provide counselling for its workers.

She also said the department will look at what it needs to do to ensure its offices are safe for staff and the public.

She said there was an unarmed security guard on duty on Monday at the Laredo office, where Texans can go to apply for food stamps and other programs.

Officer Baeza credited the supervisor with remaining calm and allowing officers to evacuate the other employees and members of the public who were in the building.