re: 8 people found dead in Houston home after standoff; suspect arrested

Warning this may be TL;DR, after all this is GingerKittie. I had to research all this for an article anyway so I thought I would share my findings here.

The family ties in this whole matter are a bit confusing.

The female (Valerie Conley on FB) was apparently married to David Conley in 1999 and then married to Dwayne Jackson in 2003. At some point David was sentenced to 5 years in jail. However she still had Conley's name on one FB and was still FB friends with him. She also had a FB page that carried Jackson's last name as hers.

Pis of the exterior and interior of the 1235sq ft, 3 bedroom house can be seen here LINK From the looks of the cramped home, the 8 people living there were like shooting fish in a barrel. Even if they escaped out the back door, the surrounding 6 ft wood fence would likely have trapped them or at least made it hard to get out.

She had one child with Conley and 5(?) with Jackson. She also had at least one older child who had kids in another state who appears to be Conley's child as well.

Her 11 year old has had a FB since she was 9. She thought it was cute that he 6 year old was dancing to Rhianna. (

Apparently police had had a few calls to do a "welfare check" in the past few days but could not break in to do so. It was only when they spotted a child's dead body that they had the authority to act.

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I understand it. But IMO they had evidence that he was obviously dangerous and willing to kill. I know it's risky, but I think you gotta press on and get the guy. Basically I'm asking them to put the lives of the citizens over their own lives.

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Knowing that this was a dangerous domestical situation with at least one dead, and knowing the perp was armed, had committed extensive violent crimes in the past and had resisted arrest/eluded police before means the killer had little to lose.

So upon finding the body, they also went door to door and asked the famiies to evacuate, to shelter inside and NOT come out during the impending commotion and to rope the area off.

Killer knew he was going away for life on this one, possibly death penalty and he may have wanted to take out a few cops with him, blow up the house, or further violence. The cops followed protocol properly, no one else was injured, the perp was taken without much incident (or a suicide by cop situation).

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I'm not a fan of the protocol

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weren't you in the military?

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weren't you in the military?

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Yes and I think the cops who arrived on the scene should be able to handle this situation. They all carry rifles and shotguns in their trunks and can be trained to clear buildings just like swat can. I know it wouldn't have mattered in this situation because everyone was dead but they didn't know that. If there were people still alive I think the best approach is to go ahead and end it quickly. Yes, I realize it's very dangerous but sometimes you just gotta go for it.

Just my opinion.