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Suspect Killed Mother, Relative, Three Others In Terrell, Family Says

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Terrell police work multiple crime scenes after five people are found dead.

Update, 7:15 p.m.: Terrell police have charged 36-year-old Charles Brownlow Jr. with the capital murder of a convenience store clerk – the last of five people to be killed at different locations on Monday night.

Police expect to add charges against Brownlow, including the murder of his mother.  Investigators are not talking about a motive. But they say Brownlow was under the influence of something when he was arrested hiding in some woods early Tuesday morning.

His brother says Brownlow also had a drug problem.

Update, 3:49 p.m.: Court records show the man suspected of killing five people during a series of attacks in Terrell has a long criminal history, including convictions for assaulting a family member, drug possession and weapons charges.
 
Police arrested Charles Everett Brownlow Jr. early Tuesday in Monday night's slayings. They haven't disclosed the preliminary charges but say Brownlow is suspected of killing all five people.

Brownlow's criminal history goes back to 1995.

Records show he was sentenced in 2009 to three years in prison for being a felon in possession of a firearm. He was paroled after seven months.
 
Brownlow was convicted two years ago on an assault charge related to family violence. Court records don't indicate which family member was involved.

Update, 12:12 p.m.: The brother of the man suspected of killing five people during a series of attacks in Terrell says that their mother and another relative were among the victims.
 
Terrence Walker told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the suspect, his brother, 36-year-old Charles Everett Brownlow Jr., lived at their mother's home in Terrell. He says his brother struggles with drug addiction and that their mother always looked after him.
 
Walker says police called him at around 6 p.m. Monday to tell him his mother's house was on fire. He says he had to identify his mother's body and that an aunt of his was killed in one of the other attacks Monday night.

Police haven't disclosed the preliminary charges against Brownlow but say they suspect him in all five killings.
 
Original post: Terrell police say five people have been killed and a suspect has been arrested in connection with the deaths.

Terrell police Chief Jody Lay says a 36-year-old man was arrested early Tuesday after police chased him into some woods. The Dallas Morning News reports the suspect is Charles Everett Brownlow Jr.

Police say a woman who had been shot and killed was found Monday afternoon at a house in Terrell, a community east of Dallas in Kaufman County. The body of another woman was found in a burning home nearby. Lay says a man and a woman were found shot to death Monday night at a third residence, and a male clerk was killed at a convenience store.

Police caught the suspect after he stole and wrecked a car, then ran into the woods.

Chief Lay didn't detail a motive in the killings.

We've compiled this story using information from KERA News reports and The Associated Press.

Courtney Collins has been working as a broadcast journalist since graduating from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in 2004. Before coming to KERA in 2011, Courtney worked as a reporter for NPR member station WAMU in Washington D.C. While there she covered daily news and reported for the station’s weekly news magazine, Metro Connection.