SUBURBAN WEST PALM BEACH, FL -- Two-year-old Ariel and 3-year-old Reggie are seemingly happy, their grandmother says they don't realize what they witnessed last night.
One day, she'll tell them.
Shirley Richards tells our sister station WPTV, "I'll tell them the truth, their dad killed their mommy."
The Palm Beach County Sheriff's office says their father, Reginald Johnson, shot himself in the head after shooting and killing their mother, Laronda Becker before their childrens' eyes.
Richards was also in the room and explains, "He just grabbed her and put the gun to her head and shot her and she fell to the floor."
Moments before her death, Becker pleaded with a 911 dispatcher for help, saying, "He's in here! Hurry up, please!"
But, it was too late.
In the 911 recording you can hear Becker beg for her life and the lives of her children as they cry in the background.
The line goes dead around the time Johnson pulls the trigger: a violent ending Becker's family feared would happen.
Richards says, "I knew he would do that; that's the reason we've been moving all over the place."
Becker had a restraining order against her abusive boyfriend and went into hiding two years ago.
She told the 911 dispatcher whys he let him into her Suburban West Palm Beach apartment: "He's not supposed to be around me and my kids but I was just trying to be nice and let him see the kids and he took it too far."
Richards feels the system failed her, saying Johnson should have been locked up for abuse long ago.
Instead, he's recovering from his self-inflicted wound.
Richards feels, "He shouldn't be alive. He should be the one that's dead."
The couple's young children will never know the mother who gave everything to keep them safe.
Richards cries as she says, "She was a wonderful, wonderful great mother and she was my baby."
Johnson was treated and released from the hospital.
He's now behind bars at the Palm Beach County Stockade charged with first-degree murder and attempted murder for trying to shoot Richards.
The children will now live with Richards.
Funeral arrangements have not been made.
