Murder-Suicide Erupts in Hotel Lobby

A man shot a woman in a hotel lobby in Houston on Tuesday before turning the gun on himself. That's according to police, who responded to the downtown Marriott Marquis Houston hotel, one of the most popular in the city, around 3:33pm. Police Chief Troy Finner says officers arrived to find a white woman in her late 20s and a Black man in his late 30s dead of gunshot wounds in the lobby, per KTRK. He described it as a murder-suicide, adding the male "shot the female and then immediately shot himself." Investigators have not determined the relationship between the man and the woman, per KPRC.

KTRK reports the pair arrived in separate cars five to 10 minutes before the shooting occurred. "Both of them came in with suitcases" and "they did have conversations that led people to believe they knew each other," Finner says. "The investigation is going to determine exactly what relationship it is," he adds, per NBC News. "This is tragic … We've got apparently two families affected here." No one else was injured in the shooting. One witness tells KPRC that she hid in a storage closet in the gift shop after an employee ran inside and locked the door, describing "an active shooter." (More murder-suicide stories.)