Holly Beverly & Titus Akins shot dead by Timothy Beverly in Fort Worth murder suicide. Estranged spouse kills self after killing Christian teacher & teen.
A Texas teen and his ‘much beloved’ school teacher mother were fatally shot by the boy’s estranged step-father who then fatally shot himself in a suspected double murder-suicide earlier this week. The bloodbath came as the boy was celebrating his 17th birthday.
Holly Beverly, 39, who worked at Hope Works Christian Academy, and her son Titus Akins were gunned down in their west Fort Worth apartment just after midnight, Tuesday, WFAA reported.
Timothy Beverly, also 39, identified as the gunman — who was not Titus’ biological father — upon having shot the teen and his mother then fatally turned the weapon on himself, The Dallas Morning News reported.
Holly and Timothy Beverly were described as being ‘estranged spouses who had been apart for approximately two to three years’.
A neighbor told The Fort Worth Star-Telegram that she heard banging, shouting and a man yelling at someone in the home to ‘give me my boy, give me that boy,’ before hearing gunfire.
‘She believed in God…’
Shotgun shells littered the area around the apartment by the time police arrived, and the door to the home looked as if it had been shot in, the neighbor told the Star-Telegram.
Holly’s two other children were home at the time of the shootings.
Holly’s father and Titus’ grandfather Sam Midkiff told WFAA told ‘we just know that night was a very violent night.’
‘From what I’m hearing, talking to the other kids and stuff….Titus was trying to help his mother,’ Midkiff said. ‘He was like a little hero.’
‘Titus was like my little man. He was very smart and always wanting to learn,’ Midkiff added.
Holly had wanted to be a teacher since she was small, her father said.
She also ‘believed in God and she believed God had the answer to a lot,’ he added.
Titus was ‘kind, helpful and exceptionally bright; graduating from high school one year early,’ according to GoFundMe page for the family.
Holly ‘loved Jesus and her family fiercely, and tirelessly provided for her three children as a single mother,’ the fundraising page said.
Authorities have yet to say what motivated the double murder-suicide.
