I never shot anybody when I was trying to pick up my children for “visitation” (children never “visit” their father when they are minors), and I never got shot, either - but the emotions involved here are instantly understandable to anyone who has ever had to retrieve their children who are being unlawfully detained.
That having been said, I have two questions that I don’t see from the articles I have read (although commenters seem to know the answers):
1) Constant referral to the mother as Reid’s “ex-wife”. Media does this ALL THE TIME. The day after a woman shacks up with Teddy down the block does not make her a man’s “ex-wife”. The fact that they are separated (if they even are) does not make her his “ex-wife”. Question One: Were they in fact divorced legally?
2) Lots of commenters refer to the shooter as “her boyfriend”. Is that an actual fact? The maybe-maybe not “ex-wife” in the home of a man who then kills her maybe-maybe not ex-husband and the man is also her boyfriend? His burden of proof just went through the roof, maybe especially in Texas.
If Carruth was conspiring with the mother to illegally interfere with the children’s right to their father, then as far as I’m concerned, he should hang. And I’m 28 years after my event, and mostly better about things.