Haltom City police have released new details in the double murder-suicide that happened last week in the Birdville ISD parking lot, with evidence indicating the incident was a targeted, premeditated attack.
On Friday afternoon, a man driving a U-Haul van confronted a woman driving a white car on East Belknap Road, and the two vehicles pulled into the nearby parking lot of the Birdville ISD administrative offices, as The Dallas Express reported.
The man exited his vehicle and shot the woman and her passenger, a young girl, before turning the gun on himself. The man and the woman died at the scene, and the child died at a local hospital.
Police have now identified the shooting victims as 33-year-old Raissa Thatukila and her 6-year-old daughter, Nathy Mbuyi. The shooter, identified as John Mbuyi, 30, was reportedly involved in a custody dispute with Thatukila over their daughter, Nathy, and was harboring grievances toward the woman.
Police said in a statement that Mbuyi “lured the victims to the location under the pretense of providing money, where he carried out an ambush he had carefully planned in advance.” He was “experiencing personal distress following the death of his father” and had previously “expressed concerning thoughts related to death.”
Detectives investigating the shooting determined that it was “not a spontaneous incident but a deliberate act of violence.”
The department stated that it would not release any further information pertaining to the shooting to allow those impacted by it to have the “space and privacy needed to grieve and begin the process of healing.”