Couple both dead after disagreement over $500 winning lottery ticket

An argument over a winning $500 scratch-off lottery ticket apparently led a man to shoot his live-in girlfriend on Saturday morning, then turn the gun on himself, police in Fort Worth, Texas, have said.

“We received information that the suspect had won $500 on a Texas lottery scratch-off ticket and that the victim wanted half of the proceeds,” homicide Sgt. Joe Loughman said. “The suspect didn’t want to share it with her.” Though critically injured from a gunshot wound to the chest, Laurice Hampton, 48, was able to call 911 at about 6:30am to report the shootings by Terry Martin, 46.



“She told them that she had been shot and that he had shot himself after he shot her,” Loughman said. Responding officers found the couple inside a master bedroom of their home. Martin was pronounced dead from a gunshot wound to the head. Hampton was taken by ambulance to John Peter Smith Hospital and died a few hours later.

Loughman said the couple had known each other since childhood and had lived together for several years. They were known to have a “very volatile relationship,” he said. Tarrant County court records show Martin was sentenced in July 2012 to a day in jail and fined $214 for assaulting Hampton in their home in November 2011.