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Houston-Area Elementary School Teacher Shot To Death In Alleged Domestic Violence Incident
Wendy Duan taught third-grade reading and language arts in Houston. Sugar Land police have not released the name of the male suspect in the case.
A community is in mourning after a popular Houston teacher was shot and killed in her own backyard.
Police in Sugar Land, Texas — a southwest suburb in Houston — were called to a home in the New Territory developed west of the city at 9:50 p.m. on Saturday night in response to neighbors' reports of gunshots, Sugar Land Police said in a press release.
One of those neighbors, Tony Thomas, spoke to Houston ABC affiliate KTRK.
"Out of nowhere, just four very distinct gunshots is what I heard, and it was quite scary at the moment," he told the station. "So I dropped everything I was doing, came outside."
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When police arrived, they found a 28-year-old woman dead of multiple gunshot wounds in her backyard. She was later identified as Wendy Duan, a third-grade reading and language arts teacher at Boone Elementary School in Houston, according to Houston CBS affiliate KHOU. She was the only resident living in the home.
Police say the shooting was related to domestic violence and, though they do not yet have the suspect in custody, they have identified him.
"His identity is not being shared at this time to protect the integrity of the homicide investigation," Sugar Land city spokesman Doug B. Adolph told Law&Crime.
Duan had been a teacher with the Alief Independent School District in southwest Houston since 2017.
"We are deeply saddened to learn about the tragic passing of Alief ISD employee Wendy Duan," the district said in a press release obtained by KHOU. "Our thoughts and prayers are with her family during this difficult time."
Her neighbors expressed sorrow at her passing.
"We'd talk to each other, and she told me she's a teacher," Sandy Thomas told KTRK. "She seemed like a nice girl; we would see each other on and off sometimes."
"It's very sad about that because she's very young and vibrant," Thomas told KHOU. " We're all very sad about it."
