Man Drives 15hours To Shoot Girlfriend's Family

Early Christmas morning, police in Marion County, Florida, say 23-year-old Preston Pollard drove 15 hours from his home in North Texas, showed up at the family's door and shot and critically injured his girlfriend's 55-year-old step-mother, named Mary Lou Hutson.


Pollard is a 2009 graduate of Maypearl High School.




"She was shot and then he went to the next parent, Richard Hutson and shot him," said Lauren Lettelier, spokeswoman for the Marion County Sheriff's Office.
The 36-year-old dad didn't survive. Four others in the home, including Pollard's girlfriend, were unharmed. Pollard later killed himself as Florida police attempted to pull him over.The ordeal has left Pollard's father, Stephen, who lives in Venus, heartbroken.
"I know my son. That's not him, he was not a mean person," he said Saturday.
Stephen said Pollard had bought a plane ticket for his girlfriend in Florida to come to Texas for the holidays. She'd previously lived in Venus, Stephen said, and added Preston had even lived with her family in Florida for a time.But as it got close to the holidays, something happened and Stephen learned she wouldn't be coming. So Stephen believes his son then decided to go get her himself.
"Something went wrong," Stephen said. "Nobody really knows what happened... They say he opened the door and started shooting. That doesn't sound very likely to me."The elder Pollard said Ellis County Sheriff's deputies showed up at his door around 2:30 a.m. on Christmas asking where Preston was. He said he then called his son, and his son said he was driving in Weatherford and would be home soon. He never showed up, and when Stephen called Preston again, he could tell something was wrong.Authorities told Stephen later that morning his son's body had been found in his car.Stephen says his son had a clean record and didn't own a gun. Pollard was even in the Air Force in Mississippi. That's why he says authorities' version of events doesn't add up."Why would he drive all that way to kill somebody? He was driving that way to see his girlfriend," the elder Pollard said.An unexplained Christmas crime that, either way, has now ripped two families apart.The Hutson family has asked not to be contacted by media, and Mary Lou remains in critical condition.


























Source : firstcoastnews