Who is Lawrence Reed? Texas man kills wife, shoots children after she 'threatened to leave him'
KATY, TEXAS: A Texas man, Lawrence Reed is accused of killing his wife, Valerie Junius, 36 after she 'threatened to leave him'. According to reports, the 53-year-old man also opened fire on two of her children as they tried to escape. Both the children were shot but survived, police said. It was not clear at the moment how many children Reed and Junius shared together.
According to police, the incident took place at their home in Katy, west of Houston, on July 29. In a bone-chilling similar incident last year, a man from China was arrested for allegedly murdering his wife while she was sleeping. Xu Guoli was also accused of dismembering her corpse and flushing the body parts down the loo. Another news of a Florida man allegedly murdering his wife, and 4 kids and storing their bodies for weeks before dumping them surfaced in March last year. In September last year, a Minneapolis man was arrested after he fatally shot his wife and then dumped her body in the garage.
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Junius' 16-year-old son and her 20-year-old daughter were shot by Reed but survived, the Harris County Sheriff’s Office said. However, the extent of their injuries is not known at the moment. Reportedly, when officers arrived at the scene of the crime Reed briefly barricaded himself inside the home and threatened to kill himself, but he later surrendered. According to her family, Junius had been on the phone with her mother Gloria when Reed fired gunshots on her. Junius is survived by her six children aged between 4 and 20 years of age.
According to a GoFundMe page set up by Junius' relatives, Junius' mother, Gloria, who was on phone with her, "had the horrific experience of having to hear Lawrence shoot her daughter Valerie a total of 7 times". The description on the page read, "No mother should ever have to endure the pain and heartache of listening to their child be murdered while on the phone with her. We are left speechless and in shock. Valerie was a mother to six children ranging in age from 20 years old to 4 years old, along with one grandchild. Valerie worked hard to help all of her children." Junius' cousin Treshawnda Junius told ABC13, "She was going to leave him (Reed). She was tired. He knew it was over when she stayed in Chicago for as long as she stayed. He knew it was over. He killed her. He didn’t give her a chance." Lawrence Reed is charged with murder and two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.