Affidavit: Celina man told 911 dispatcher “I just killed my whole family”

CELINA, Texas (KXII) - The three people killed in Celina a week ago Friday were the wife and two children of the suspect in jail tonight.

According to the affidavit obtained by News 12, the suspect, Michael Patton called 9-1-1 at 7:20 pm last Friday and said “I just killed my whole family,” and told officers his house was on fire.

The affidavit states that Patton told officers on the phone that his wife was in the closet and not breathing and that there were two children in the house who were not coming when he called for them.

Patton said he “woke up and they were dead and the gun was in my hand.”

While on the phone with the dispatcher Patton left the house with the gun in his hand. As he walked out the house went up in flames. Patton told officers he was unsure if he started the fire with his two children and his wife still in the house.

One neighbor said she rarely ever saw the Pattons at social functions within the neighborhood and rarely ever interacted with them in what she called “a very tight knit community.”

”This just didn’t happen this day, it lead up to this. What I took from it is we need to be more aware of our neighbors, our surroundings and making sure you’re taking care of people because we’re all going through something and you just never know,” said Latonna Whitt, a neighbor of the Patton’s. “Maybe if we were more connected and making more efforts we could have, you know, he could have been more connected to get help or reach out to someone at a struggling time as opposed to being isolated and then a tragedy like this happens.”

Other neighbors said they plan to organize a memorial on Tuesday to honor the family members who were killed.

They called it the first step in moving past this tragedy and healing as a community.

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