Friends of Baytown woman who shot her husband, two sons and herself say she was mentally ill

Like any other Sunday, the Baytown family had just attended church before setting off for Galveston to stay at the popular San Luis Resort.

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But by early Monday morning, both communities were left reeling after news that Flor Pineda had killed her husband, Mauricio Cañas and two sons, ages 5 and 10, before killing herself.

Now, fellow church-goers and family members are disclosing Flor Cañas, 37, suffered from mental illness, and she had stayed in a psychiatric facility last year.

“She told us, ‘I’m coming here because I don’t want to hurt nobody and I don’t want to hurt myself,'” Pedro Echegoyen, a longtime friend, told the Houston Chronicle.

While the mother struggled with her demons, she put up a good front, working for a trucking business, and doting on her two sons.

Next-door neighbor Henry Davis told the paper that Pineda kept close watch over her two boys, Daniel and Mauricio Jr., who attended Victoria Walker Elementary as a kindergartner and fifth-grader, and another neighbor said the father would play with the kids in the front yard and watch them ride their scooters.

“Flor was always checking on us,” Davis said. “I would watch her take the boys to school in the morning. I don’t know how to react now. I walked out this morning and they’re not there. I look at the house and I just think, ‘Lord, no more.'”

Flor Cañas was able to recently purchase a 9 mm handgun, Echegoyen said, while Galveston authorities declined to confirm this detail.

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“That gun should have never been [sold] to her,” Echegoyen said.

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