Florida Family Massacre: Tonya Thomas shot her kids 18 times before killing herself, reports say

[The Northerner]

(CBS/AP) PORT ST. JOHN, Fla. - New reports reveal that Tonya Thomas, a Florida mother, shot her four children 18 times before killing herself. She was also a victim of domestic abuse.

The shootings happened on Tuesday, May 15, 2012 in Port St. John, near Cape Canaveral. The children fled to a neighbor's house, but returned when Thomas came outside and called for them to return. Authorities said she then fired the fatal rounds, smoked a cigarette and later killed herself.

According to USA Today, Brevard County's medical examiner wrote in a report that 33-year-old Tonya Thomas used a Taurus .38-caliber revolver to shoot and kill her children Joel Johnson, 12, Jazzlyn Johnson, 13, Jaxs Johnson, 15, and Pebbles Johnson, 17.

There were 19 gunshot wounds found on the victims, including the self-inflicted wound found on Thomas' body, according to the report. One child was shot seven times while the youngest child was shot five times from more than two feet away. The revolver was fired against the chest of at least two children.

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-57438291-504083/florida-family-massacre-tonya-thomas-shot-her-kids-18-times-before-killing-herself-reports-say/

[4th law of robotics]

1. 19 shots with a revolver

so she reloaded a minimum 4 times (3X6 + at least one for herself).

What a monster.

Too bad she got the order backwards.

[gratuitous]

2. It's all about priorities

I have no idea what drove Ms. Thomas to this incredible act of savagery, whether it was something latent in her personality, she just snapped, or what. But we can argue about whether spending $2 billion a day on "defense" is enough or if it should be $2.5 billion a day. Meanwhile, our citizens' health (mental and physical) slides a little further down the list of priorities and we all get to mourn the terrible aftermath of a mother executing her four children before killing herself.