Texas Teen Accused of Killing Ex-Girlfriend's Family: 'Evil Visited Us One More Time'

On Wednesday, December 10, the Odessa Police Department announced the arrest of an unidentified teenage male, who has been charged with capital murder of multiple persons, a felony. He's accused of killing 39-year-old Jessica Rodriguez -- the mother of his ex-girlfriend -- as well as two of Rodriguez's children, a 9-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl.

The teen's ex-girlfriend, who also has not been identified, is still alive.

The shooting went down the day before, on December 9, around 5:45pm. Officers responded to a number of calls, finding three deceased victims inside an apartment. The suspect had already left the scene on foot, Police Chief Mike Gerke said in a press conference, but was placed into custody about 40 minutes later.

"Investigation revealed that the 15-year-old male suspect had planned on shooting his 15-year-old ex-girlfriend outside of school but changed his mind and went to her residence instead," authorities said in a press release, adding that "the suspect entered the residence and shot his ex-girlfriend’s mother."

He then shot the ex-girlfriend's siblings, said police.

According to Gerke, authorities believe this was an isolated incident, adding there's no evidence the teen had any gang affiliations.

"This is a targeted thing, this was not random. Not an active shooter event and we knew who the actor was almost immediately," he told press. "Unfortunately, and we've seen that here in Odessa before, evil does visit us from time to time and I think that's what happened yesterday. Evil visited us one more time."

Gerke said the suspect has told them how he allegedly got the weapon used in the shooting, which they're investigating. When asked if there were any red flags before the shooting, Gerke said they had one call concerning the teen in the past, but it had "nothing to do with this location."

Of the ex-girlfriend, he added, "She is okay ... she wasn't injured ... after all this happened, I'm sure she's not okay ... but physically, she was unharmed." He also wouldn't say whether she was home at the time of the shooting.

The father of the two young victims -- who is also the ex-husband of Rodriguez -- posted about their deaths in a GoFundMe.

"Today, a young boy took the lives of my 9-year-old son, my 13-year-old daughter, and their mother, who was my ex-wife," he wrote. "This is something that no one can really prepare themselves for because we don't expect this kind of tragedy to happen to any of us."

In an update, he added, "My heart is extremely broken and I keep finding little pieces at a time wondering which piece goes where!! It will never be complete anymore but as long as, I keep picking up these small pieces maybe one day it’ll form some type of shape again!!"