2 dead, 2 injured in home shooting in Cypress

Police are shown at the scene of a shooting at 20300 block of Silverwood Trail in Cypress. Police are shown at the scene of a shooting at 20300 block of Silverwood Trail in Cypress. Photo: Melissa Phillip / Houston Chronicle Photo: Melissa Phillip / Houston Chronicle Image 1 of / 8 Caption Close 2 dead, 2 injured in home shooting in Cypress 1 / 8 Back to Gallery

A couple's adult son tried but failed to prevent his terminally ill father from killing himself after he had already shot his ailing wife, in what police are calling a murder-suicide in a Fairfield subdivision.

The husband, 77, in the well-off Cypress area shot and killed his 73-year-old wife, said Harris County Sheriff's Office spokesperson Deputy Thomas Gilliland.

When the man shot himself after a "tussle" with his son, Gilliland said, the bullet went on to hit the son's arm. Fragments of the same bullet were lodged behind the ear of a home health aide.

Harris County Precinct 4 Constable Mark Herman said his office received a call at 2:22 p.m. Wednesday from a woman inside the house in the 20300 block of Silverwood Trail, regarding a shooting at the home.

The caller was apparently a daughter of the family living at that address, Herman said.

She, the couple's son and a health care worker were all in the house at the time of the shooting, according to Harris County Sheriff's Office spokesperson Dep. Thomas Gilliland

Video: Raw: Officer relays what happened during fatal home shooting in Cypress, Texas

The health care worker was taken by Life Flight helicopter in critical condition to Memorial Hermann Hospital to be treated for a gunshot wound to the head. The son was transported by ambulance to an area hospital, the constable said.

The elderly man and his wife both suffered from "debilitating diseases," Gilliland said. According to neighbors, the husband had pancreatic cancer that had spread and the wife had suffered a series of strokes. Neighbors said the couple on the tree-lined street with perfectly manicured lawns, American flags hanging over front doors and lawn signs for Tuesday's Cypress school board elections kept to themselves. They had lived there between five and 10 years, at one point with their daughter and her college-aged children.

The couple had elaborate Halloween decorations every year, with a hearse and tombstones on the front lawn, neighbors said. This was the first year they failed to put those decorations up.

Neighbors said they were shocked as at least eight police cars parked on their block and blocked off half of the street. None of the residents at the scene remembered anything like this ever happening in the Fairfield area.

The wife had complained on Wednesday morning to her husband that she was not feeling well and hadn't been well for a while, Gilliland said. Neighbors said the woman had returned from a visit to the hospital that morning.

"It's very tragic. It's a horrible thing the family had to go through," Gilliland said.

Emma Hinchliffe contributed to this story.