By Steven Alford, Mary Ann Cavazos
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
CORPUS CHRISTI — A 66-year-old man shot his wife Wednesday morning before turning the gun on himself with their two teenage children at home.
The woman survived and was later released from a hospital. The man died from a single gunshot wound to the head, said Ric Ortiz, chief investigator for the Nueces County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Corpus Christi police found the man about 7:30 a.m. on the back patio of his home in the 300 block of Claremore Street, off Ocean Drive. The medical examiner’s office identified him as James P. Lynch Jr.
His wife, 52, suffered injuries from a bullet which grazed her head and shoulder, Corpus Christi police said. She was later released from Christus Spohn Hospital Memorial.
The couple’s 14-year-old daughter and 18-year-old son were home at the time of the shooting, police said.
“They heard the sound of the gunfire and found their mother wounded,” said Lt. Isaac Valencia, Corpus Christi Police Department.
Neighbors said the Lynch family moved to Corpus Christi from Las Vegas about a year ago.
“I never saw any conflict,” said Elliot Cooper, who lived next door to the family. “They seemed happy.”
The couple worked tirelessly for a local financial company, Cooper said.
“They were always at work or at home working on their computers,” he said. “You’d see Jim walking his dogs in the morning, but that was about it.”
Cooper heard a loud thud Wednesday morning, which he figured were children playing in the backyard behind his house. When that was followed by someone screaming he knew something was wrong.
Claremore Street was filled with police cars and emergency vehicles Wednesday morning following the shooting.
Neighbors stood nearby trying to find out what happened inside the home. By afternoon the house sat silent, two cars parked in the driveway.
Les Cassidy lives across the street from the home and said he rarely heard or saw them.
“It’s a surprise to us because things were pretty quiet over there,” Cassidy said. “We didn’t really ever see them.”
Police have not said what motive may have been behind the shooting.
“There was obviously a problem in the household, but we don’t want to speculate about what it was,” Valencia said.
Corpus Christi police have responded to more than 4,380 domestic violence cases this year, nearly 12 a day, police said.
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