Late Sunday night, just before 11 p.m., police were called to the 300 block of East Floyd Street in Slaton after reports of multiple gunshot victims. When officers arrived, they found three people already dead from gunshot wounds and two others badly injured. Both survivors were rushed to a local hospital and have since been stabilized, which is about the only piece of good news in this whole mess.
Law enforcement quickly said there’s no ongoing threat to the public, which is official code for “it’s over, but it was ugly.” Early in the investigation, deputies concluded that one of the people found dead was the shooter. In other words, it appears this was a murder-suicide — a horrific, intimate kind of violence that doesn’t care how small or quiet your town is.
The case has now been handed over to the Lubbock Metropolitan Special Crimes Unit, because when three people die and two more are shot, even Slaton needs the big guns (the investigative kind, anyway). No names have been released yet, as authorities say they’re still notifying families.
So here we are again: a late-night call, a quiet street, multiple bodies, and the familiar promise that “there’s no danger to the public,” as if that’s supposed to make it all feel better. Another West Texas town gets added to the ever-growing list of places where “it could never happen here” just happened.
If this is what “no ongoing threat” looks like, maybe it’s time we admit the real danger already did its damage.
https://www.kcbd.com/2026/01/12/3-dead-2-injured-late-sunday-night-shooting-slaton/
https://www.everythinglubbock.com/news/latest/lubbock-fatal-shooting-slaton/