Family argument leads to shooting incident

INDEPENDENCE, Mo. -- An argument over a ride to work ended with a man fatally shooting his sister before killing himself, police said.

The mother of the two victims was wounded in the shooting Sunday night in southeast Independence, police said.

The victims were identified Monday as Christina L. Shelton, 29, and her brother, Carlus M. Shelton, 22.

Independence police spokesman Bill Pross gave this account of the shooting:

Carlus and Christina, who had lived together in the duplex for several years, were arguing over whether Christina would give her brother a ride to work Monday morning.

When their mother, Joyce Shelton-Harden, 47, of Kansas City, tried to intervene, Carlus apparently become enraged and fired one shot from a semi-automatic pistol. The shot went through his mother's arm and hit Christina in the chest.

Carlus hugged his girlfriend, an 18-year-old whose name was not released, then went downstairs and shot himself in the head, police said.

Shelton-Harden's wound was not life threatening. She was recovering Monday in an Independence area hospital.

Pross said there was no history of police calls to the Shelton home.