SO SAD

PORT ST. JOHN, Fla. – A mother killed her four children Tuesday, calling three of them back into her home to fatally shoot them before turning a gun on herself, police said.

Florida Today
A 33-year-old mother went on a shooting spree early Tuesday in Port St. John, Fla., taking the lives of her four children and then herself.
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Florida Today
A 33-year-old mother went on a shooting spree early Tuesday in Port St. John, Fla., taking the lives of her four children and then herself.
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At one point, three of the wounded children ran to a neighbor’s house, but the mother, Tonya Thomas, 33, stepped outside and beckoned them to return to home where they were fatally shot.
The children were identified as Joel Johnson, 12; Jazzlyn Johnson, 13; Jaxs Johnson, 15; and Pebbles Johnson, 17, said Lt. Tod Goodyear of the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office. Thomas reportedly sent a text to a friend at about 3 a.m. saying she wanted to be cremated with her children, police said.
The friend did not receive the message until much later, Goodyear said.
“I’m a father and I’ve got kids,” the sheriff’s spokesman said. “I cannot comprehend a person doing that to their child … calling them back to the slaughter.”
Sheriff’s deputies and the county’s SWAT team responded to the home after a 5 a.m. call reporting that shots were fired.
The neighbor who called heard a knock and went to the door to find three of the children standing outside, asking for help, Goodyear said. At least one appeared to have been shot, and the neighbor handed the victim a towel.
At that point, Thomas stepped outside and told the children to return home. The children listened to their mother and walked back to the house, Goodyear said. Moments later, more gunfire ensued.

By Tim Shortt, Florida Today
Brevard County officers staff a command post Tuesday in Port St. John, Fla.. in response to shootings earlier in the day.
The officers spotted one shooting victim, the 17-year-old girl, lying in the front yard. Deputies pulled up, loaded her inside their patrol car and drove her to a waiting ambulance. Paramedics declared her dead at the scene.
Deputies saw movement inside the house, including what appeared to be a lit cigarette, Goodyear said. Then came a final shot.
Dispatch records released Tuesday show that authorities responded to Thomas’ house on three successive days in April.
In the first visit, on Easter Sunday, Thomas reported that her son had thrown a bicycle through a window at the house. The next day, Thomas called to report that her son had kicked and punched her when she tried to wake him up for school. The following day, child welfareinvestigators visited the house to look into allegations of inadequate supervision of the children.
Records also showed that Thomas was arrested in 2002 on a misdemeanor battery charge for striking the father of her children. The charge was later dropped. Two years earlier, she filed a domestic violence complaint against Joe Johnson, but that was dismissed after a hearing.
Police had been to the house previously, Goodyear said. One of the teens, Jaxs Johnson, was to appear in juvenile court Tuesday on a misdemeanor battery charge involving his mother.
Neighbors were stunned. .
Greg Tschanz and his wife, Jennifer, live a few houses away from the crime scene. He said he gave Thomas a used TV and often saw the kids playing outside.
“I cannot even come to grips with it,” he said. “It was a surprise to me to hear that the sheriff’s office had even been there before for domestic calls. Complete shock.”
Travis St. Peter, who lived about three houses down from the shooting scene until two days ago, said the family was known in the neighborhood for being disruptive. He said police were often at the house.
“They were just known for being hoodlums,” St. Peter said of the children before he knew their fate. He said the mother was regularly yelling at the kids, who were often running around the neighborhood late at night, “terrorizing our dogs and setting off firecrackers.”