BULLITT COUNTY, Ky. — New details were released inside a Bullitt County courtroom as a woman accused of fatally shooting her two children appeared in court on Tuesday.
Police were called to Tiffanie Lucas' home in Shepherdsville on Nov. 8, where they found her 6-and-9-year-old sons suffering from gunshot wounds to the head.
Bullitt County Sheriff's Detective Richard Beahl took the stand, testifying what he saw and heard the day he answered the call for a double shooting on Bentwood Drive. Beahl was the sole witness in court Tuesday.
He said two neighbors from the same house called 911 once they heard gunshots coming from next door.
Four gunshots could be heard on a nearby Ring doorbell camera. Roughly four-and-a-half minutes after the last gunshot is heard, Lucas can be seen leaving the house, yelling for help.
Beahl said when he arrived on scene, Lucas was collapsed in the neighbor's yard, while another officer went inside the house to find both boys covered in blood in a bedroom.
A neighbor had initially gone inside the home trying to save the young boys.
"He advised me that he pulled into his driveway and when he did, he told me he saw the defendant, Ms. Lucas, walking down the steps of his porch and eventually collapsing in the driveway. When he approached her, she told him that her 'kids were dying.'"
Lucas told police someone had given her a firearm, which she left in the bedroom, indicating the shooting may have been an accident. She said no one else had been inside the home.
Beahl said Lucas told police she was "in such a bad spot," and that she would "never do anything like this unless someone manipulated me," and that what happened "was an accident."
Maurice Baker Jr.'s stepmother, Michelle Rice, and Bobbie Baker, his aunt, took issue with the idea Lucas was somehow out of control.
"How do you accidentally shoot a kid two times and then shoot their brother? How do you do that? It's no accident," Bobbie said.
"We're not accepting that," Rice added. "It's not mental illness, she knew what she did."
Lucas' defense asked the detective if the sheriff's office tried to detect any drugs in her system; Beahl answered "no." Later, the defense motioned to preserve and review police evidence and it was approved.
Judge Jennifer Porter decided to keep Lucas' bond at $2 million cash, saying she remains a danger to the public. She also moved the case forward, finding probable cause to have it go to trial before a grand jury.
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