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Chesterfield woman’s children killed in Texas home: ‘Pray my kids knew I loved them’

Posted at 11:23 AM, May 17, 2018
and last updated 2018-05-17 23:05:05-04

RICHMOND, Va. -- A mother whose children and boyfriend were killed inside their Texas home Wednesday morning is from the Richmond area.

From her hospital bed in Texas, Amanda Simpson said her ex-husband opened fire inside the home killing their children, her current boyfriend, and himself.

She said her ex-husband, identified by the Denton County Sheriff's Department as Justin Painter, previously tried to kill himself following the couple's break up.

"I made it very clear to the judge that he was mentally unstable. And they didn’t listen," Simpson said in a Facebook LIVE posted from her hospital bed. "So now, I don’t have my babies."

Simpson, who attended L.C. Bird High School in the mid-2000s, said the shooting happened Wednesday morning after she told her ex-husband -- again -- she did not want to be in a relationship.

Their children were eight, six, and four years old, according to a GoFundMe pageset up by family to help Simpson with expenses and travel back to Virginia.

Amanda Simpson and her children.

"You guys know that they were my everything, my purpose to breathe," she said on Facebook LIVE. "You never think you will lose a child. I always watch the news, and I stop watching it because so many children get killed. I just don’t know what to do."

Simpson's aunt, Lynnette Smith, said the children lover their mother.

"They were fun loving, bubbling children. They were average normal children, and they loved their momma," Smith said.  "I didn't believe it and then it was devastating."

Amanda Simpson in the hospital.

Simpson, the lone survivor, said she was recovering from a gunshot wound.

"The bullet is under shoulder blades — or under my shoulder blade — but it’s also broken a couple ribs," she said in her Facebook LIVE. "It’s broken a bone in my neck, they had a thing around my neck but they took it off."

She later asked for prayers.

"I just ask if you can... pray that my kids knew that I loved them," she said.

"Everyone is going to have to come together to help support her," Smith said.  "The type of person she is and will be is going to be two different things now. Her whole world is torn apart. She's lost everything."

This is a developing story. Witnesses can send news tips and photos here.

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