Left: Richard Tanner Ozment (McLennan County Sheriff’s Office). Right: The location where Michael Brooker was found fatally wounded (KXXV). Insets, left to right: Richard Tanner Ozment (McLennan County Sheriff’s Office), Michaela Brooker (GoFundMe).
A Texas parolee accused of killing a 38-year-old mother with a machete and a concrete block was caught after his mother reported to deputies he looked “very sweaty” and she saw a “human foot” outside her home.
Richard Tanner Ozment, 36, faces charges of first-degree murder in the death of Michaela Brooker, authorities said.
“This is one of the most horrific, horrible, brutal, senseless attacks that we have seen in a long time,” McLennan County Sheriff Parnell McNamara said at a press conference announcing the arrest. “It never should have happened.”
The bloodshed happened on Saturday in the 15000 block of Old China Spring Road in China Spring, northwest of Waco. It stemmed from an unspecified domestic argument, authorities said. The relationship between the victim and the suspect was unclear.
Ozment allegedly used a machete and a concrete block, fatally wounding Brooker, the sheriff said.
Authorities were called after the suspect’s mother noticed her son was “very sweaty” and she saw “a human foot lying on the ground behind an RV” on her property, local NBC affiliate KCEN reported, citing a criminal complaint.
Ozment’s mother also reportedly saw the wounded woman behind the RV.
“What have you done?” she asked him, according to local CBS affiliate KWTX, citing the complaint.
Ozment allegedly replied that Brooker “tried to stab me,” the outlet reported.
The suspect’s mother ran into her home while her husband called 911. First responders arrived and began treating Brooker as the suspect fled. Brooker was flown to a hospital, where she died, and law enforcement from multiple agencies fanned out on the ground and by air to search for the suspect, the sheriff said.
Ozment was found 10 hours later hiding underwater in a stock tank in the woods near the crime scene and was taken into custody, the sheriff said.
A GoFundMe was set up to help support Brooker’s child.
“We are heartbroken to share that our beloved Michaela was tragically taken from us too soon,” the site said. “A victim of a senseless act of violence, she was a cherished mother, daughter, and friend.”
At the press conference, the sheriff revealed details about Ozment’s criminal past. He was released on parole within the last several months after serving 10 years of a 40-year sentence for burglarizing churches and homes in the area, McNamara said.
He is being held at the McLennan County Jail on $1 million bond, online booking records show.
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