Taylor Sheats, the 22-year-old who was fatally shot alongside her 17-year-old sister, Madison, by their mother, Christy, Friday, was reportedly set to marry her longtime boyfriend today.
Maria Lugo, a relative of Sheats’ boyfriend, Juan Sebastian, made a recent post on Facebook, sharing, “Y’all were apart of our family, and that will never change. The greatest in-laws any one could ever have, and the sweetest, most wholesome and caring girls in my life. I look up to y’all so much. Y’all were a light in the midst of this crazy world. We will all love you two until the end of time.” She included a group photo featuring Sheats and her sister. Another Facebook user commented, revealing how Sheats and Sebastian were going to wed Monday, and then host a larger wedding ceremony later, PEOPLE reports.
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A press release from the Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office, explains that 42-year-old Christy “convened a family meeting” in her living room, before opening fire on the sisters. Sheats was apparently shot first inside the home. Christy then followed her outside of their residence, where she was shot again in the street. The bodies of both Sheats and Madison were found by authorities lying in a residential street of Katy, Texas.
A dispute apparently led to the deadly shooting on the birthday of Sheats’ husband, Jason, who was also inside the house at the time, PEOPLE details. Eyewitnesses claimed that Jason begged her not to hurt their daughters. “Don’t do this,” he apparently pleaded. “They’re our kids.” The parents had recently reunited after being separated, according to another neighbor. He was the only family member left unharmed.
Another eyewitness claimed to have seen Sheats, Madison, and Jason, run from the home — the girls were already wounded, ABC 13 reports. The eyewitness claimed Sheats collapsed on the street, however, Christy went back inside her home to reload her gun before shooting Madison outside in the back. Christy refused to drop her weapon when ordered by police during a brief standoff. She was fatally shot by authorities.
According to ABC 13, Christy had posted anti-gun control messages to her Facebook account. In one post she reportedly wrote that “it would be horribly tragic if my ability to protect myself or my family were to be taken away, but that’s exactly what Democrats are determined to do by banning semi-automatic handguns.”
Her friend, Catherine Knowles, admitted to ABC 13, “This is not the Christy that I know. It’s just not. I thought it was the wrong person. It had to be.”
Knowles said the women befriended each other last summer and she could tell that Christy was a mom “within the first minute,” due to the fact that she proudly spoke about her daughters.
“I couldn’t imagine anything in her life that could’ve made her snap,” Knowles continued. “Your own children, I don’t know what could possibly go through someone’s head.”
Sheats majored in Diagnostic Medical Sonography and was a 2015 honors graduate of Lone Star College at CyFair in Cypress, Texas.
“She was just such a sweet girl. She had tons of friends, me and him both. I just can’t believe it happened,” friend Matthew Wiley shared ABC 13 of Sheats.
Madison was to be a senior at Seven Lakes High School in Katy, Texas, this fall and was a babysitter.
An unidentified friend of Madison’s further shared with ABC 13, “Madison brought nothing but happiness to everyone she ever met. She was nice to everyone and she wouldn’t have harmed a fly.”
According to PEOPLE, investigators have claimed that Christy suffered from mental illness and authorities were called to the family’s home “for previous altercations” involving her “mental crisis.” Since January 2012, the local sheriff’s office responded to 14 calls for service at the exact location.
Story compiled by Julianne Cassidy of Womanista.
