Home > Crime > Five Dead After Mother Calls Kids Back From Neighbor’s House To Shoot Them

Five Dead After Mother Calls Kids Back From Neighbor’s House To Shoot Them

May 15, 2012 at 3:14 pm by kniption

Port St. John, FL — A Florida mother shot and killed her four kids before killing herself. This after she called three of the kids who had sought help from a neighbor back into the house.

Police say Tonya Thomas, 33, fatally shot her four children early Tuesday morning. Deputies identified the children as Pebbles Johnson, 17; Jaxs Johnson, 15; Jazlin Johnson, 13; and Joel Johnson, 12.

Three of the children – one of them ‘covered in blood’ – had reportedly gone to a neighbor’s front door before dawn to say that their mother had shot them. The mother then called the children back to the house and killed them, said Lt. Tod Goodyear, a spokesman for the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office.

“From what the neighbors said, she was very calm. She walked out and called them back. They turned around and walked back to the house,” Goodyear said.

The neighbor then heard gunshots and called 911.

According to police, another neighbor said that Thomas had sent a text message in the middle of the night saying she wanted to be cremated with her children.

“[The neighbor] didn’t see the text until he woke up this morning,” Goodyear said.

DCFS didn’t comment on whether the family had a history with the agency but Goodyear said deputies had responded to the house for domestic complaints previously.

Tags: Familicide, Florida, Murder-suicide, Tonya Thomas

62 Comments

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darsa

Why, oh WHY did those kids go back in? I would have thought that kids that age would’ve turned and hightailed it AWAY from there! God, this is awful…
CT

Just kill yourself and leave everyone else out of it.
tdavid6

Another article I read stated that a neighbor heard two gunshots around 5 am, then her doorbell was ringing and three kids stood at her door asking for help (it doesn’t say what kind of help they asked for, or if they gave the neighbor any indication of what had happened at their house). The mother then calmly walked outside and called the three back home, and the neighbor then heard several more shots. They found the 17 year old girl dead in the front yard. I think what happened is the mother shot the oldest girl twice, the other kids heard the gunshots and went seeking help (maybe they just weren’t sure what had happened to their sister yet). Not enough information, but I wonder why the neighbor didn’t get the kids in her house and call police
sam1211

Misery loves company
zombiephile

Jesus fuck. And people wonder why I’m an atheist.What kind of god lets a mother kill her children?
DangerousKindOfSnark

I’m sorry, but if I have three kids standing outside of my door and I hear gunshots, they’re coming inside and the police can come and get them.
tdavid6

That’s what I was thinking, too.
rensuchan

Yep. Like so many that have been featured on D’D after they’re dead….

YOU’RE FUCKING DOING IT WRONG. Stop wasting ammo, just use one shot for yourself and leave your kids out of it.
megaflytron

It sounds to me like she had some good ass kids if they came BACK to the house per her instructions after she already tried shooting them once…

honestly though these kinds of stories simply make me want to vomit.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=621965500 Ginny Leigh

Fuck.
Apachee

I wish those kids would not have went back into that house God Please this is so sad!
Catelyn

This is …horrible, just insane. How can anyone shoot their kids, and then call them back?! To shoot them some more. People are fucking crazy.
JohnQknowitall

WHAT THE FUCK!?!?!?!?!?!? If the children had been shot by the mother, then why the hell did the neighbors allow the children to return to their mother’s house. Did they expect her to disinfect the children’s wounds?

Jesus Fucking Christ! Dumb asses!

These neighbors are apparently good for calling 911 after the fact and making carbon dioxide. Fucking waste of humanity.
http://talkinshitwithshannieandboo.blogspot.com/ BooBooKittyFuck

I wish those kids had just fucking ran and their “mother” had just offed herself instead of dragging her kids into the afterlife with her…fucking cunt….
JohnQknowitall

Amen!
DMC_Vergil

This saddens me deeply…and people ask me if I’d care if the world ended this year….*sigh*
http://www.facebook.com/dre.mosley Dre Mosley

I hate this apparent trend of having to take people with you when you decide you want to leave the world. How selfish and. . .arrogant to think that either they can’t go on without you or that it’s your call to end their life along with your own. Fuck her.
RydoLarsson

Exactly thats one thing i never understand why would you want to murder your children because your going to kill yourself its just nuts she must have had mental issues surely
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=532670634 Cassinique Cunningham

I have to thank God for the parents and family I have because there are some EXTREMELY SICK people out there……
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=532670634 Cassinique Cunningham

why bring religion into this?
Athena

Since the devout regularly bring religion into it when something good happens, it’s only fair that religion gets brought into it when something bad happens. I can see why Team Christian would rather we didn’t, though.
kniption

Nope. One of the kids who went to the neighbors was shot and bloody. His mother got him to return to the house. That information was not available when I posted this. Sad.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/florida-mom-murders-children-kills/story?id=16352663
onlyme356

That’s exactly what I was thinking, poor kids still felt like they had to listen to their mother!
OutOfBubbleGum

stupid. stupid.. stupid..
TinyCyborg

Maybe since she was so calm it didn’t seem real. The entire scenario seems confusing, like a nightmare. I couldn’t imagine mom just killing my sibling calmly, like a robot, maybe they thought “real” mom was calling them back… you’d think four kids together could over power her but I guess they just didn’t see it coming, at all.
JGo555

why? Why in the fuck did they come back!?

Sounded to me like the kids were so well behaved… THEY GOT SHOT, LEFT, GOT CALLED BY THE SHOOTER AND THEY CAME BACK TO GET SHOT AGAIN!!!!!!
http://www.facebook.com/iesha.bradley.7 Iesha Bradley

omg really
http://www.facebook.com/teeoneal Tara Oneal

This is soooooooooo sad. Just so sorry that no one could help this family before all of this happened.
Heather_Habilatory

Jesus.
Heather_Habilatory

Since religion is shoved down our throats, we’re just returning the favor. You’re totally welcome! Enjoy!
Heather_Habilatory

Those poor kids and those poor neighbors.
OutOfBubbleGum

Introducing the ‘New I-Pad 5′.

It prevents you from texting when you have gun oil or spent gun powder residue on yours hands. “If you can’t text your farewell, then hopefully there won’t be a farewell to you and your innocent family members.”
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=534372011 Georgia Meyer

This is the kind of crime that leaves me completely depressed. The woman had to have been having some massive troubles, did no one notice? Or is it possible she truly had no one to notice? If people stopped and noticed something off, would it have helped prevent this? I’m not blaming other people for it, its obvious this lady had some severe mental issues to even consider snuffing out her own life plus those of her children. Damn. Just damn. And for the neighbors to witness the children banging on their door for help and then going back to the house when she called….I would need therapy for life.
Lemont_Cranston

During a horrible day for my sister, I received a text at work that said, “Thats it, I’m going to kill everyone starting with myself!!” I was cracking up but when I shared the text, I noticed people didn’t get it.
http://twitter.com/tinalib13 Tina Wech

What a selfish, cowardly bitch! Kill yourself, but let the innocents alone. WTF?!
kimbev69

Another wonderful neighbor
tdavid6

Well, now I’m done giving the neighbor the benefit of the doubt. Just another oxygen wasting member of humanity that “doesn’t want to get involved”.
tdavid6

God was nice to you, apparently not so much to these four kids. They might have been praying to God for a different mother. Maybe he was tied up with something else.
https://twitter.com/#!/AngelsMom0806 Angels Mom

“I can see why Team Christian would rather we didn’t, though”

As a card carrying member of Team Christian it doesn’t bother me. **shrug**
https://twitter.com/#!/AngelsMom0806 Angels Mom

He asked a valid question actually.
kniption

I updated the post to include a photo of Ms. Thomas. It was unavailable at the time of the first posting.

Also, if you click on the phrase “the children” you can see all of them.
megaflytron

I could see that, honestly. As well as having the boundaries established so that listening to her was second nature.

The sad thing is that I read other reports stating one of the children was actually bleeding and the neighbor offered them a towel before they returned to their doom. The children being under her thumb is one thing, but the neighbor as well? It simply doesn’t sit right with me…
tdavid6

They give out cards on the Christian side? Damn agnostics, they’re so cheap.
tdavid6

“Now, here’s a towel, run along home now. I don’t want your crazy mamma over here knocking on my door”.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Lil-Bit/679912203 Lil Bit

I just don’t understand how a bunch of teens and tweens could get shot at and then just walk back to the person who did it. I know she’s mom but… wow.

Her mugshot’s pretty evil-looking. She has snake eyes.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Lil-Bit/679912203 Lil Bit

I want to know what kind of history the mom had that made her a person who could try to kill her own kids, call them back calmly, then finish the job. I’ve seen people show more emotion while slaughtering a pig.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Lil-Bit/679912203 Lil Bit

I’m putting my guess on their being in shock and not being too bright. Mom doesn’t look like she’s exactly capable of passing on genius genes. She may very well have done drugs and/or alcohol while pregnant with any of them. She would have been 15 when she had her first one.
Cherbear1

I’m with you on this one. They probably thought, “Okay, we will go back and see that what we thought happened didn’t really happen, and we can just go back and get in our beds and go to sleep. This is not happening……” Even though the one boy seemed to act like spawn, they didn’t deserve this and certainly not from the person that brought them here.
Castille

I think one of those kids wasn’t so good – assaulting the mom, breaking shit in the house, problems with neighbors, etc. Wonder if that’s the one she initially shot in another of their domestic blow ups, and after that outburst the kids figured she was done shooting at him and never even entertained the notion she might deliberately kill him in a cooler way, let alone open fire on the rest of them.
Jeanette Gordon

I have no idea why the kids would come when she called them back in the house there is no way she could have shot me then called me back for more. I wasn’t there but I feel for the kids that died. I must say that I am glad the mother killed herself because she needed to be taken out of her misery!
tdavid6

Sorry, this is in reply to TinyCyborg. Not exactly (about the boundaries). The link Kniption posted above talks of problems in the home, including one of kids assaulting the mother when she tried to wake him up one day, and throwing a bicycle through the window. It doesn’t seem that they were overly obedient. Which makes this even harder to understand.
http://truecrimereport.com iLLusionS

I think you hit the nail right square on the head..Suicide is selfish anyway..And murder/suicide is off the scales selfishness.
http://truecrimereport.com iLLusionS

My kid barely comes back to me in the livingroom when we are having a “clean your room” dispute. If I shot her she’d bolt, and never return. But I’d shoot anyone in the world, before I’d shoot my own child,and hate selfish suicidal bitches like this.
https://twitter.com/#!/AngelsMom0806 Angels Mom

Yep, they glow in the dark and everything.
Snickering_Hydra

Well to give you the generalized theological answer, God allows these things to happen because we live in a fallen world and not the perfect garden of Eden.

But, by being here, I’m sure you’ve figured out that last part already.

Human nature is naturally depraved, fond of evil, and easily seduced by lust, violence etc. – Also fairly obvious since we’re having this discussion on the dreamindemon website.

I’ll skip the Jesus, grace, and salvation bit and just leave you with that simple response.

That is, unless you’re an atheist with humanist views – though that may be difficult to reconcile seeing as how all these terrible atrocities (reported and unreported ) are perpetrated by people each and every day.
tdavid6

I get all of that, about free will and everything. The reason I struggle with theodicy isn’t so much why bad things happen to good people, but why when good things happen to people they always thank God, even in the face of a tragedy happening to someone else. Like when an entertainer thanks God for winning a Grammy, when three children were just beaten to death that day. I feel like people who think that God really is granting them “miracles” by letting them win an award that they prayed so hard for are arrogant in thinking their request was more important than someone elses. Maybe they prayed harder?
Snickering_Hydra

Part of the mystery of God is that the only source(s) of knowledge about him are religious texts that can be interpreted differently.

One guy may think (a) about a certain aspect of religion and then dutifully respects his neighbor.

But here on DD we usually hear about the people that think (b) about another facet of religion and end up slaughtering their family / discriminating / sexually abusing etc.

I don’t blame you for being skeptical. It’s far better to be unconvinced and to really attempt to search for truth rather than falling in line with the supposedly “religious” people.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_SI2B7QEP5JTB2LMKBAU64I4TII Steve

god was distracted by the pope running his mouth about birth control and must have spaced on this one. For someone who is supposed to be everywhere, he seems kinda too busy to be bothered with humans at all. Guess god needed four more black kids in heaven more than they were loved by people on earth but he could have chose a kinder way to get them there then by having their own mother blow them away. (sarcasm)

It always gets me how people can cite god when shit like this happens. Why isn’t it obvious that there IS NO GOD? Because god would never allow an innocent child to be killed so heinously-otherwise he is a cruel and inhumane being and not someone who I think any sane person should believe in-cases like this one and the thousands of others just like it are why I will NEVER buy into any theist bullshit.
http://profile.yahoo.com/K5RAGF5333RIME2MB3WLUBXIIU Paula

crazzy bitch, enuff said
http://profile.yahoo.com/K5RAGF5333RIME2MB3WLUBXIIU Paula

we all have questions, be oooo so careful, when it comes to questioning God, Imjustsaying
http://www.dreamindemon.com Morbid

lol, no shit.
whisperswing

Autopsy: Port St. John mother was drunk when she shot her children
PORT ST. JOHN —
Autopsy results show a Port St. John mother was drunk when she shot and killed her four children.

Tanya Thomas shot her four children – Pebbles, Jaxs, Jazzlyn and Joel – on May 15 before turning the gun on herself.

The Brevard County Medical Examiner’s report showed Thomas had a blood alcohol level of .16 percent, which is twice the legal limit for a person to be considered drunk.

A neighbor said three of the children knocked on the door around 5 a.m. that day when 33-year-old Thomas called them back home.

Moments later, the neighbor heard more gunfire and called 911
[...]http://www.cfnews13.com/content/news/cfnews13/news/article.html/content/news/articles/cfn/2012/10/6/palm_bay_mother_was_.html