HOUSTON (AP) -- Five children and three adults were restrained and fatally shot in the head at a Houston home by a man with a violent criminal history who had previously lived there, authorities said Sunday.
David Conley, 49, was charged with three counts of capital murder involving several victims. The cause of their deaths was among the details revealed in an arrest affidavit read in court Sunday afternoon. Conley, who is being held in Harris County Jail, didn't appear in court. The judge denied him bond. He does not yet have an attorney.
Conley told police that he discovered on Saturday morning that the locks had been changed at the home after he had moved out. He entered the home through an unlocked window, according to the affidavit.
Officials with the Harris County Sheriff's Office later responded to a request to do a welfare check at the house and got no response at the door. They saw through a window a male on the floor with a gunshot wound. Police then heard gunshots coming from the front of the house. A standoff ensued between officers and Conley. He later gave himself up to authorities and was arrested.
The identities of the victims were not immediately released. One of the capital murder counts Conley is charged with is for the deaths of multiple people and another is for the death of a person under six years of age, according to court documents.
The relationship between the suspect and victims has not been specified. Officials say more information will be given at a news conference set for 3 p.m.
Court records show Conley's criminal history dates back to at least 1988, with the most recent incident last month, when was charged with assault of a family member. In court documents, authorities say the suspect had been arrested for allegedly assaulting the woman he was living with at the home where the bodies were found. Documents say he was in a dating relationship with the woman.
Court documents said Conley pushed the woman's head against a refrigerator multiple times after she tried to stop him from disciplining her son with a belt. The case was still pending.
In 2013, he was charged with aggravated assault for threatening the same woman with a knife. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to nine months in the county jail.
In 2000, he was arrested for retaliation, accused of putting a knife to his then-girlfriend, threatening to kill her, her baby and himself. That came after she filed an assault charge against him for cutting her with a knife and punching her in the face. He was sentenced to five years in prison for retaliation.
The area around the home was cordoned off Sunday, with sheriff's deputies coming in and out of the house and the medical examiner's office having arrived at the scene.
Alan Cartagena, 19, said he was attending a barbecue at a home a couple houses away. About 11 p.m., he said, deputies started going around the neighborhood knocking on doors.
"Cops were walking around with their handguns out, telling people to remain in their houses. They were also telling them to evacuate. It was extremely scary," he said.
Cartagena said he heard one gunshot but wasn't sure if there were more.
Neighbor Dalila Mercado says when she arrived home Saturday night officers had already blocked off the area. She said she was sitting in her driveway when she heard gunshots coming from the house and officials then told her and her family to go inside their home.
Mercado said she could still see from her bedroom window and watched as a man was escorted out of the house after midnight. She said officials then had him next to her fence, taking fingerprints and photographs.
"It was shocking. I haven't slept all night," she said.
Mercado says she didn't know the residents of the house well, but would occasionally say hello to a woman and see children waiting to catch the school bus. She said she didn't recognize the man taken out of the house.
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