At least 7 shot dead in Texas and Tennessee

Two shooting incidents in the US states of Texas and Tennessee have left at least seven people dead.

A Texas father opened fire on Wednesday after a domestic dispute, killing four of his children as well as two adults who were with them, and critically wounding his 15-year-old daughter, authorities said.

Police officers were called to a house by the wounded daughter about 6 p.m. local time in the northern Houston suburb of Spring and found two adults and three children dead. Another child later died at a hospital, the Harris County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.

“It appears this stems from a domestic issue with a breakup in the family from what our witness has told us,” Assistant Chief Deputy Constable Mark Herman of the Harris County Precinct 4 Constable’s Office told reporters.

The murdered victims were two boys, ages 4 and 14; two girls, ages 7 and 9; a 39-year-old man; and a 33-year-old woman, said Deputy Thomas Gilliland of the Harris County Sheriff’s Office. The gunman and his wife are estranged, and she lives out of state, Gilliland said. All of the children were theirs. Two of the dead children were adopted, he said.

The suspected gunman eventually surrendered after a three-hour standoff with deputies who had cornered him in a nearby dead-end street about 3 miles from the shooting scene.

The man had led nearly two dozen police patrol cars to a cul-de-sac before 7 p.m. local time. After 3 hours of waiting and negotiations, the man finally emerged from his car, raised his hands and dropped to his knees as deputies placed him under arrest.

Meanwhile, a sergeant first-class in the Tennessee National Guard was shot to death on Wednesday at an armory about 120 km southwest of Nashville.

An intense manhunt followed the shooting and authorities say they have detained a “person of interest” for questioning.

Every year, thousands of people are shot and killed in the United States. About 4.5 million firearms are sold annually in the country at a cost of 2 to 3 billion dollars.