Police response to slayings delayed

COLDSPRING, Texas, Nov. 10 (UPI) -- Other emergencies delayed deputies' response to increasingly frantic calls from a southeastern Texas home where four people were found dead, officials said.

Oliver "Bubba" Bills Jr. allegedly killed himself Saturday after shooting his adoptive mother, his girlfriend and her daughter, the Houston Chronicle reported. The San Jacinto County sheriff's department acknowledges the first calls were made at least seven hours before deputies finally got to the small house outside Cleveland.

Capt. Carl Jones, who is investigating the response, said the callers were not clear that Bills was violent, describing physical symptoms rather than mental ones. He said the department, with four police cruisers available, was dealing with a major highway crash and a man with a gun.

Deputies found Bills dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, along with the bodies of his adoptive mother, Gloria, 71; his girlfriend, Shara Torres, 27; and her daughter, Sara Whitmire. 4.

Mark Campbell, a Huntsville home builder and friend of Bills, told the Chronicle he made some of the calls and left at 4 p.m. only because he believed deputies would be at the home in a few minutes, about four hours before they actually arrived.