Three killed, two wounded in series of early morning shootings in southeast Texas

ORANGE, Texas - Three people were killed, two of them children, in a series of shootings early Monday in East Texas, and an intense search was under way for a gunman. Two people were severely wounded. <br> <br> Authorities believed the shootings in Orange and Newton counties along the Louisiana state line were related, and investigators suspected the gunman was carrying rifles, shotguns and a pistol. <br> <br> State and local police searched the woods of the two counties and officers escorted school buses through the area. <br> <br> In the first attack, a man shot and killed a woman in Orange, set fire to the house where the killing occurred and stole a car from a nearby home, said Trooper Richard Vasser of the Texas Department of Public Safety. <br> <br> The man then apparently traveled about 40 miles north to the area of Kirbyville, where he tried to break into a home but was driven away by an exchange of gunfire with the occupants, said DPS spokeswoman Tela Mange. <br> <br> Next, several people were shot at a home at nearby Call in Newton County, Mange said. A 13-year-old and another child, about 3 or 4, were killed, and a 2-year-old and the children&#39;s mother were wounded, she said. <br> <br> After fleeing in another stolen car, the gunman was stopped by police along U.S. 96 and fled into a wooded area, Vasser said. <br> <br> Police gave no immediate details on how or where the suspect was stopped. <br> <br> A spokeswoman at Christus St. Elizabeth Hospital in Beaumont would not give details about the wounded woman and child. <br> <br> <br>

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