A Texas elementary school principal was shot to death by her husband earlier this week while her two children were inside, police said. The husband then turned the gun on himself in an apparent murder suicide. Erica Allen, 35, was found dead outside and two houses down the street from the League City home she shared with her husband, Nicholas Allen, 40.
According to KHOU, neighbors in the community an hour southeast of Houston witnessed Erica's estranged husband shoot her and then go back into the house. Police have launched an investigation into the gruesome murder and is still clueless what exactly led to the murder-suicide.
Killed Brutally
Neighbors who reportedly witnessed the murder first called police about the violence around 10 pm Wednesday. However, there is a new angle that police are now exploring. According to police, Nicholas also called 911, telling dispatchers he was the victim of a home invasion.
According to eyewitnesses, they claim Nicholas first shot Erica and then went inside the house. The couple children were still in their room when he went inside and he then made a false call to police. Following that, a tactical team responded to the scene, and contact was established with Nicholas, according to a statement from the police. The Nicholas allegedly told police that there were "innocents" inside the house, presumably referring to his two children.
"The investigation determined that the initial call of a home invasion was untruthful, and the incident stemmed from a domestic problem," read the statement from the League City Police Department.
Police said it was about 1:33 am when the tactical team breached the door and inside the home to find Nicholas in the closet, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. They then found the couple's children, ages 7 and 2 but they were not physically harmed.
Soured Relationship
Police is still investigating what led to the horrifying murder suicide, while neighbors are shocked. "The cliché ... you don't expect it to happen in your neighborhood, but it did," Brian Schilter, a neighbor, said. Schilter helped clean up his neighbor's yard on Thursday. It was the yard where police found Erica's body.
Erica Allen was a principal at Heights Elementary School in the Texas City Independent School District, KHOU reported, while Nicholas was an assistant principal at Wells Middle School in the adjacent Spring Independent School District. According to court records obtained by ABC13, Erica had filed for a temporary restraining order against her husband in Galveston County last July.
Erica had also filed for divorce and that the home where she was murdered was also recently sold. Police will soon be sharing other details related to the murder, while the couple's children are likely to be sent to a foster home.
