PORTLAND (AP) – A woman who was gunned down by her husband before he took his own life on a city street on the Fourth of July may have avoided contacting police because she feared her daughter would be taken away again, a friend said.

Portland police had no record of domestic abuse before the shotgun deaths, but neighbors reported that the two argued regularly.

Brenda Warren, who’d threatened to leave her husband, may have been discreet about problems because she didn’t want to raise the alarm of state child welfare workers who’d recently allowed her 17-year-old daughter Santana to return after being in a foster home, said Sherri Misiuk, a family friend whose son is dating Santana.

“I think the reason she didn’t do too much about it is because she’s working to get Santana back,” Misiuk said. “She had worked hard at turning her life around so she could get Santana back in her life.”

Friends say Santana was home at the time of the shootings, but that two other children had left to watch fireworks.

Fred Warren, 35, fired his single shot, 20-gauge shotgun twice, hitting his 35-year-old wife in the chest, and then chased her into the street where he shot her in the back of the head, police said. He killed himself with a shotgun blast to the head, as well.

“In spite of all the efforts that have taken place to educate people about domestic violence and efforts to avert these types of things, I think the message doesn’t get through and we’re still confronted by these horrendous scenes,” said Police Chief Tim Burton.

Both bodies were slumped on the street for an hour while police awaited the arrival of medical examiners as scores of pedestrians were headed through the neighborhood on their way to watch the city’s fireworks on the Eastern Promenade.

Heather Hagle, who lives across the street from the Warrens, said neighbors were aware of yelling and fighting and that police had been called.

“They were never arrested, just dispersed,” Hagle said. “They would go back inside.”

Misiuk’s 17-year-old son told her that just before the shooting, Fred Warren had asked him for $10 to buy more beer and the boy refused. Minutes later, they could hear screaming coming from the house and then a gunshot.

Brenda Warren’s coworkers at the Falmouth Wal-Mart described her as a pleasant person and a good worker. She worked in the shoe department, then in jewelry.

“We used to call her the shoe mama’ and then, when she went to jewelry, we called her bling bling,”‘ said store manager Brian Dearborn.

Brenda Warren had one child together and each had a child from a previous relationship, authorities said. The children were placed with family and friends by the Department of Health and Human Services, police said.

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