An arrest warrant says the victim’s wife survived the gunfire and hid inside the home before the suspect fled.

WACO, Texas — A woman who had been sitting beside her husband in their living room dropped toward the floor as gunfire erupted inside their Waco home, according to an arrest warrant account of the Aug. 9 shooting that killed 49-year-old Yotanca Calhoun. Police accuse his cousin, 43-year-old Michael Calhoun, of carrying out the attack after the couple allowed him inside to take a shower.

The killing left investigators with a witness who police say saw the attack at close range and survived an alleged attempt to shoot her as well. It also left Yotanca Calhoun’s relatives trying to understand why a family member whom the couple had just welcomed into the house would be accused of turning on them. Michael Calhoun was arrested later that night and was reported held in the McLennan County Jail on a $1 million bond in the latest reliable coverage located for this report. Authorities had not publicly identified a motive in the material reviewed through Sept. 22.

The encounter began as an ordinary favor, according to the warrant account reported by KWTX. Michael Calhoun arrived at the Summer Avenue home and said he was sweaty and wanted to use the shower. The couple let him inside. While he was in the bathroom, Yotanca Calhoun and his wife remained together on the couch. Investigators say nothing in the publicly reported warrant account describes an argument immediately before the shooting. When Michael Calhoun came out of the bathroom, the wife told police, he directed the words “This is for you” toward Yotanca Calhoun and began firing. The warrant account does not publicly explain what he allegedly meant by the statement.

The wife’s account then becomes central to the case. She told investigators she dropped beneath a table as shots were fired and believed Michael Calhoun tried to shoot her too. The warrant says the weapon could no longer be fired because it was out of ammunition. She used the pause to run toward a bedroom and hide in a closet. Police say Michael Calhoun called toward her while she was taking shelter, but she remained concealed until she heard him leave. Her account, as summarized in the warrant reporting, places her inside the home during the shooting and describes a rapid sequence in which she moved from the living room to a bedroom while trying to avoid further gunfire.

Only after the house became quiet did she emerge, according to investigators. She found her husband on the floor with several gunshot wounds. Public reporting on the charging document described wounds to several areas of his body, but the circumstances can be reported without the more graphic detail contained in that document. The important point for the investigation was that Yotanca Calhoun had been struck repeatedly and could not be saved. Officers dispatched to the 2800 block of Summer Avenue at 9:47 p.m. began medical aid when they arrived, according to Waco police. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Michael Calhoun was gone before officers reached the house. Police initially described the case in narrower terms, saying a 49-year-old man had been killed and that investigators had identified and quickly located a 43-year-old suspect. Officers found Michael Calhoun in the 2600 block of Alexander Avenue and took him into custody, police said. Early police information said the two men knew each other. Later reporting from the warrant and from Yotanca Calhoun’s family established that they were cousins. Police subsequently identified Yotanca Calhoun after relatives had been notified and described the case as Waco’s third homicide investigation of 2026.

The shooting unfolded only minutes after two of Yotanca Calhoun’s daughters had left the home, according to a separate KXXV interview with his daughter Destiny Calhoun. She said she and her sister realized they had forgotten something and returned. Instead of walking back into an ordinary evening at their parents’ house, they encountered police activity along the street and learned from their mother that their father had died. Destiny Calhoun told the station that she understood her father had been shot nine times. Publicly reported portions of the warrant describe multiple wounds but do not provide the same numerical count, so the family’s figure has not been independently established in the reporting reviewed here.

The daughter also gave an account of what happened to her mother that differs in one small but potentially important detail from the publicly reported warrant. She told KXXV that the firearm jammed when Michael Calhoun tried to shoot her mother. The warrant account reported by KWTX says he ran out of bullets. Both accounts describe the same larger circumstance: Yotanca Calhoun’s wife was in the room during the shooting, believed she was also in danger and survived. The reason for the difference between the descriptions of the weapon was not explained in the available reports, and no public forensic findings reviewed for this story resolve it.

Relatives have said the violence was especially difficult to understand because of how they knew Yotanca Calhoun. His wife, who did not appear on camera in the KXXV report, described him as a person relatives turned to when they needed help. She said he tried to mediate problems, treated other people without judgment and looked for ways to help them through difficulties. That portrait also gives context to the circumstances that brought Michael Calhoun into the home: investigators say the couple had agreed to let a relative use their shower. The family’s description cannot establish what happened during the shooting, but it shows what Yotanca Calhoun’s death meant to those closest to him.

Family members said they did not know why the shooting happened. Destiny Calhoun made an allegation to KXXV about Michael Calhoun’s drug use, but police have not publicly identified drug use as a motive or said it caused the shooting in the reports reviewed for this article. The warrant account itself, as publicly summarized, describes the visit, the alleged statement and the gunfire but does not provide a reason for the attack. That distinction remains important: relatives may describe concerns or suspicions, while investigators and prosecutors must separately establish what evidence supports any theory of motive. A motive is also not required simply to report the allegation that a homicide occurred.

The legal case remains at an early stage in the publicly available reporting. Michael Calhoun was described by police and local media as facing a murder charge, with several reports referring to the offense as first-degree murder and listing his bond at $1 million. An arrest warrant reflects allegations used to support taking a person into custody; it does not establish guilt. The public accounts reviewed for this story did not provide a plea, trial date, conviction or later disposition. They also did not identify defense counsel making a public statement about the allegations. Michael Calhoun is therefore accused of the killing, and the allegations against him remain to be resolved through the criminal process.

The case rests publicly on several pieces of information that fit together but should not be treated as interchangeable: Waco police documented the response and arrest; the warrant contains the wife’s account of what happened inside the residence; and relatives later described the moments before and after the killing and the man they lost. What remains missing is an officially stated explanation for why the attack allegedly occurred. As of the latest reliable reporting located, Michael Calhoun was in McLennan County custody on the $1 million bond while the homicide investigation and criminal case remained unresolved.

Author note: Last updated September 22, 2026.