Tonya Thomas killed herself and her 4 kids Joel Johnson, Jaxs Johnson, Pebbles Johnson, Jazzlyn Johnson.

[rachy]

Investigators: Port St. John mom kills 4 kids, herself

PORT ST. JOHN Investigators are taking a closer look at a recent domestic abuse call involving a 33-year-old mother who apparently went on a shooting spree and killed her four children and herself during an early morning confrontation, Brevard County Sheriff's Office investigators report.

At one point, three of the wounded children ran to a neighbor's house, but the mother, identified as Tonya Thomas, stepped out and beckoned them to return to the home at 7245 Bright Ave., where investigators said she fatally wounded them before deputies arrived.

Investigators were called to the same home in April to investigate previous complaints from Thomas that her 15-year-old son threw his bicycle through a window and another time, kicked her in the stomach and pushed her to the floor as she woke him to get ready for school.

It was not immediately clear if the previous incidents were connected to today's deadly shootings. The teen, identified as Jaxs Johnson, was set to appear in Brevard County Juvenile Court on the charges, authorities reported.

BCSO, which is leading the investigation into the murder-suicide, identified the other shooting victims as Joel Johnson, 12, Jazzlyn Johnson, 13, and Pebbles Johnson, 17.

Thomas reportedly sent a text message out to a friend about 3 a.m. saying that she wanted to be cremated with her children but the friend did not receive the message until much later, said Lt. Tod Goodyear of the Brevard County sheriff's office.

I'm a father. I've got kids. I cannot comprehend a parent doing this to their children, particularly after they leave calling them back into the slaughter,Goodyear said.

We are just beginning the crime scene investigation and finishing up some interviews, he said earlier.

The Port St. John shootings were the single worst instance of multiple homicides to take place in Brevard County since the April 1987 shootings in Palm Bay involving William Cruse. Cruse killed six people, including two Palm Bay police officers, during a shooting spree. It also was the second fatal shooting to take place in Port St. John -- an enclave of residential areas off of U.S. 1 in north Brevard -- in the past week.

THE SHOOTINGS

Sheriff's deputies and the SWAT team responded to the home in this modest, working class neighborhood just after a 5 a.m. call from a neighbor reporting hearing shots fired.

The neighbor 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. It was then that Thomas stepped out and told the children to return home. The children listened to their mother and walked back to the home, Goodyear said. Two made it back inside and then more gunfire ensued, authorities report.

Goodyear said that deputies arrived a short time later and saw someone at the front door go back into the house.

Deputies then spotted one shooting victim, the 17-year-old, lying unconscious in the front yard. Deputies pulled up to the yard in a patrol car, loaded her inside and drove her to a waiting ambulance. She was declared dead at the scene by paramedics.

Deputies positioned outside of the home saw movement inside the residence, including what appeared to be a lit cigarette, Goodyear said. Then a final shot came about 10 minutes later, he said.

SWAT team members then entered the home and found the bodies of the mother and the three other children, Goodyear said.

They found Joel and Jazzlyn Johnson dead near the front entrance and Jaxs Johnson dead on a couch nearby. Deputies said Jaxs was shot while he slept.

PREVIOUS CONTACTS

Goodyear said there had been previous police calls to the house. One of the teens, Jaxs Johnson, was set to appear in juvenile court today for a misdemeanor battery charge involving his mother on April 8 and April 9 at the home. It was not known if that hearing played a role in the shootings. The mother had complained to authorities that she was trying to get her son enrolled in different programs to help with his issues,reports show.

The Department of Children and Families was also involved with the family earlier this year, responding to the home following questions over whether Thomas children were being adequately supervised. Officials with the state agency reported that a child from the home had been released from a juvenile detention facility but that no one came to pick the child up. DCF investigators later said the issue was resolved.

Pastor Jarvis Wash of the R.E.A.L Church in Rockledge said Thomas "talked about her kids all the time, she loved them."

"One of her daughters, Pebbles, was great, a genius," said Thomas, who went to the neighborhood earlier today.

"She scored in the top 10 percent on her SAT, very smart."

"These are great kids."
STUNNED

Neighbors were stunned at the scope of the shootings, which came less than a week after another homicide in Port St. John and just two days after Mother's Day.

Travis St. Peter, 27, who lived about three houses down from the family until two days ago, said that the family was known in the neighborhood for being disruptive and said police were often at the house.

The Sheriff's Office has informed Brevard Public Schools of the deaths and is working with the school district to take whatever action is necessary to prepare school staff and classmates for the news.

The school district is awaiting word from authorities of the individuals names.
If it becomes necessary, we are fully prepared to support the schools in whatever capacity necessary,said Christine Davis, spokeswoman for Brevard Public Schools.

Researchers say there can be many motivations that cause murder-suicides, said Donna Cohen, a professor at University of South Florida who has researched the issue.

Generally, the perpetrator has some sort of mental health problem, he or she has a strong attachment to the victims and feel as if they are either going to be taken away or need to be protected.

Cohen's research found that on average 10 to 12 children were killed and another three to four were injured annually in murder-suicides or attempted murder-suicides from 1997 to 2001.

http://www.floridatoday.com/article/...nclick_check=1

[poppy213]

Oh Rachy, this one is horrifying. Those 3 were out of the house and then went back inside when she called them back? So close to being safe...

[emmieslost]

Oh Rachy, this one is horrifying. Those 3 were out of the house and then went back inside when she called them back? So close to being safe...

i cannot imagine how that neighbor must feel.

[g r ee n ey e s]

Not to say that the neighbor would have even had the opportunity to actually stop them from going back to their house, but with one kid already shot I probably would have tried stopping them from going back.

[mialynneb]

I don't know - if it's 5am, I'm not sure if I would have been thinking correctly or processing just what the hell I was looking at. I feel awful for the neighbor and obviously the kiddos. So freaking awful and absolutely selfish.

[poppy213]

That is it, no murder/suicide for me if it mean's that they will use my DMV photo in the news.

[emmieslost]

i'm assuming it was the neighbor who called the police? i don't think i would be too quick to runn outside if i knew some crazy lady was shooting up her own kids, but i'd surely hesitate to let them go back to her. i just cannot imagine or wrap my head around it.

[g r ee n ey e s]

The neighbor have one of the kids who had already been Shot a towel.. That would have had me yanking those kids inside.

[Cat Pajamas]

Maybe the neighbor was wmdeeznuts, he's a big fan of towels.

[emmieslost]

Maybe the neighbor was wmdeeznuts, he's a big fan of towels.

[morbidT]

Cp- hilarious!

[g r ee n ey e s]

Ya'll are going to summons the stupid!!

[rachy]

Neighbours turn away THREE bleeding kids from their doorstep frantically trying to escape from their crazed mother who later killed them in a shooting rampage

The neighbours of the Florida woman who fatally shot her four children and herself, refused to open the doors to three of the frantic children who had fled to their house.

During a recording of a 911 call made by the neighbours on the night of the attack by Tonya Thomas, 33, a crying female caller can be heard to say, 'Get back, you're not coming in our house.'

The caller's husband then grabbed the phone and told the dispatcher, 'They tried to break in our front door to get in, I guess to try and get away from her - who-ever's got the gun.'

The neighbours made the 911 call as they responded to hearing gunfire coming from the property next door and went downstairs after their front door was knocked.

'I knew this was gonna happen you guys,' the crying female caller told the dispatcher as the deaths of Joel, 12, Jazlin, 13, Jaxs, 15, and Pebbles Johnson, 17 unfolded in front of their eyes.

'The boy's in our front yard - get him a towel - he's got blood on his right side.'

During the chaotic phone call to dispatchers, the husband tells them that he is armed and willing to defend his house from the injured children trying to flee their murderous mother.

'I grabbed my gun and ran outside and one's laying there bleeding at the front door,' the man is heard to say.

'I don't know who has the gun, so I'm not walking out there.

'I'm armed, but not going out there and putting myself in danger.'

After asking the husband where the bleeding child had gone, the caller responded that 'he went back to the residence.'

Soon after this the police arrived at 7245 Bright Avenue in Brevard County to see Thomas standing in the doorway of her front door holding a gun, before she went back inside.

Then the deputies discovered Pebbles lying fatally injured in the front yard of her house.

Shots were heard to ring out and as the deputies entered they discovered Jaxs, Jazzlyn, Joel and Tonya's bodies shot to death.

Authorities said they have no motive for the killings and are not sure why the children followed the mother's orders to return back to their house.

Dispatch records released on 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 welfare investigators 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.

Neighbour Travis St. Peter, told Florida Today that the family was known in the area for being disruptive, with police often being called to the house.

'They were just known for being hoodlums,' he said of the children, adding that they were often seen running around late at night, 'terrorizing our dogs and setting off firecrackers'.

Jamie Hudson, whose mother lives two doors down from the family, told the Miami Herald that the boys in the family were known to shoot BB guns at a home across the street and had threatened to set it on fire.

A friend of Thomas told the Sentinel that he had woken to a text message sent by the woman at around 3am to say that she wished to be cremated along with her children. He did not see the message until he woke up this morning, hours after the killings.

Former Orange County Sheriff's Department officer James Copenhaver told CFNews13.com that deputies would be analysing Thomas’ phone activity in the days leading up to the shooting. ‘This may also give some insight as to why she did this,’ he said.

More would be known, he said, after the 911 tapes were released, including how many emergency calls were made and potentially how many shots were fired.

He said that toxicology tests would be run on her to determine whether or not she was taking drugs and added that domestic violence would likely have been involved, based on past experience of similar cases.

On a live chat with the former officer someone who identified themselves only as 'G' wrote that Thomas was a 'private, independent character', adding that there were 'so many components in her life'.

At least three of the children killed went to Space Coast Junior-Senior High School, according toCFNews13.com. Brevard Public Schools said grief counselors have been sent to the victims' schools.

Brevard County Sheriff's spokesman Tom Goodyear said that he was having a hard time trying to understand how a mother could commit such a grisly act.

'I cannot comprehend as a parent doing this to their children ... calling them back in and shooting them,' he said.


http://soundcloud.com/user7115757/tonya-thomas the 911 call

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...g-rampage.html

[g r ee n ey e s]

Oh my god, those assholes. Those fucking assholes.

[mialynneb]

I take back my earlier comment - fuck those people. Oh, you're bleeding kiddo? Have a towel but stay the hell out of my house. Ya know, I was more comfortable with my earlier thinking that they were just probably tired and not thinking clearly. That I could comprehend. So the kids are known to shoot bb guns and set off firecrackers - death to them you hoodlums. I hope you fuckers sleep well at night knowing you sent those children to their deaths because you just couldn't be bothered. Fuuuuuuuuuck you.

*I listened to the 911 call and at first I could understand if the kids were saying the boy shot the mom that the neighbors would be hesitant to let them in. Then the husband says the kids are saying the mom shot them. He gets on the phone and just has this indifference about him that really pisses me off. The I don't know, they went back home. Why do you need me to stay on the line? Fuck that guy.

[morbidT]

I have nothing more to contribute that hasn't already been said. I still feel like I need to express my anger and hurt over this situation. My heart just breaks for these kids. The must have been so scared and confused. Sorry you opened up this thread and nothing new was said:-(

[beli]

MIAMI – A child welfare investigator who spoke with Tonya Thomas in the weeks before she fatally shot herself and her four children said there were no signs that the children were in distress or felt unsafe. But hundreds of documents released by state officials Friday detail a family tormented by episodes of violence over the years — including an attack on Thomas by the children's father a decade ago.

An investigator for the Department of Children and Families interviewed each child in the weeks before they were killed Tuesday. Each said they felt safe in their central Florida home, but the notes offered few details beyond nearly identical paragraphs with answers to the same set of questions under each child's name. Thomas was not verbally or mentally abusive to the children and seemed eager to find a mentor for her two sons. She said her 15-year-old son Jaxs had anger issues and that the family had been going to counseling occasionally over the past six months, according to notes from the investigation.

It was initiated after Jaxs was arrested for battery against his mother in April. The 33-year-old mother didn't pick him up from juvenile detention because she wanted to teach him a lesson, so investigators were summoned to check on the other children's well-being.
The investigator also spoke with neighbors and school officials, and the children seemed fine. The investigator called to check in with Thomas on May 10 to see if she needed anything, but she said she didn't. A supervisor signed off on the case on May 13.
Two days later, deputies say Thomas shot her children, ages 12 to 17, in the early morning in Port St. John, about 15 miles west of Cape Canaveral. The wounded children fled to a neighbor's house, trying to break in, but they returned when Thomas came outside and calmly called for them to return. She fired the fatal rounds at the children, smoked a cigarette and later killed herself, according to Brevard County deputies. Seventeen-year-old Pebbles Johnson never made it back home. Her body was found in the front yard of a neighbor's house.

The child welfare investigator who recently visited them was extremely distraught and took several days of leave, a DCF spokeswoman said.

Violence in the family can be traced back at least a decade when the children watched as their father Joe Johnson yelled at Thomas for not making dinner, then punched and kicked her, knocking her into a wall in 2000, according to the documents.
Johnson was arrested and charged with domestic violence battery. Thomas and the children went into a shelter but returned to the house nearly a month later, violating a court order. The father tried to sneak out of the bedroom window on a subsequent visit by police, and Thomas instructed the children to lie about living with their father again. Still, one of the girls told police her father had spent many nights at the house, according to the documents.

The children were removed from the parents' care, but a judge ruled they could return roughly a month later despite DCF's objections. Thomas was given temporary custody and would be under DCF supervision. The parents agreed to work with a caseworker, and an investigator wrote that "they love their children very much and want to keep the family together." Thomas also told an attorney that it was an isolated incident, and that she didn't fear Johnson, according to DCF records.
The couple was ordered to attend domestic violence support group, participate in counseling, including anger management classes, but their attendance was sporadic at best. At one point the couple said they were attending the Yellow Umbrella parenting program, but DCF requested attendance records and learned they never went.

Investigators watched the children in the home and said they "appear bonded to their parents." Pebbles had just received an award for outstanding reading in her kindergarten class. All the children seemed healthy.
A few years later, Thomas was arrested in 2002 on a misdemeanor battery charge for striking Johnson, but the charge was later dropped. The documents also indicate that Thomas was abused or neglected as a child.

It's unclear how much contact Thomas and the children had with their father in the months before the shooting. He was not living at the home and an investigator wrote Thomas "does not have a relationship with a partner that is supportive of her ability to protect and nurture her children," according to documents related to Jaxs' arrest last month.
Multiple listings for Joe Johnson dialed by a reporter on Friday were disconnected or incorrect numbers.
"This is a horrendous tragedy, While these files offer a glimpse inside the families' home, they do not appear to contain the answer as to 'why' this happened that we all seek at this time," DCF spokeswoman Carrie Hoeppner said.

The documents also revealed that someone called the state abuse hotline in 2007 to say one of the Johnson girls was allegedly kissing another girl and forcing other girls to kiss each other in front of her on several occasions in the school bathroom. The report said the girl had been mean to other children and that it had recently turned physical and been getting worse since Christmas. In one instance, one of the girls crawled under a bathroom stall and looked at the other girl.
One of the girls confirmed the story to DCF investigators, another denied it happened. They were placed in separate classrooms. Investigators interviewed the girls and there appeared to be no issues of sexual abuse so the case was closed.


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/05/18...#ixzz1vH0gRYmT

[g r ee n ey e s]

Jesus dude.

[Cat Pajamas]

Can I comment yet on the name "Pebbles"? Is it still too soon?

[moosella]

Jaxs- http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001562378916

[morbidT]

Can I comment yet on the name "Pebbles"? Is it still too soon?

Like, this world will never know Pebbles stripper potential? Too soon for something like that? Meh, it's fair game, go for it.

P.S. In fire/ems/le inappropriate comments generally follow any horrific scene. Doing so de-personalizes the situation. We don't say things in public. Usually after we get back from a call. It's our "debriefing."

[bowieluva]

This is so fucking Florida. When I was living there, my mom took me and my brother out trick or treating. Her car broke down and NO ONE would let us use their phone (this was pre cell). Literally no one. My mom is standing there with two little kids, HER MERCEDES IS BROKEN DOWN, I have a fever, and people are acting like a blood-soaked hobo with an axe was at the door.

[g r ee n ey e s]

I mean, I hate people and hardly trust a stranger either. But this was their neighbor.. And they were kids. Even if it was my crackhead neighbor from across the way, if their kids were bloody and screaming for shelter you better believe I am not shutting them out.

Those jerks knew the kids were in danger (at least the husband did). Fucking shame on them. At least 2 or possibly 3 kids could have been saved. Fuck that guy, and his wife should be side eying his whole reaction. What if it was his kid?? You know, the one that needed to get out of the way? Infuriating.

[danakscully64]

I read through the article, but I'm a little confused. Did the neighbors not let them in because they weren't sure who the shooter was, because they didn't want to risk the Mom coming after them (protecting themselves), or were they just being assholes?

[beli]

i FINALLY heard the 911 tape. FUCK THESE PEOPLE. fuck them. ugh, i hate everyone.