Man drives 15 hours so he can gun down Florida girlfriend's family on Christmas morning

A Texas man reportedly spent 15 hours driving to his girlfriend's home in Florida on Christmas Eve so he could shoot her family the next morning, and then he later turned the gun on himself.

Authorities said that 23-year-old Preston Pollard's drive from North Texas to Marion County as part of a plot to carry out revenge on his girlfriend's stepmother, WFAA reported.

Police in Marion County, Florida said that 55-year-old stepmother Mary Lou Hutson was the first one shot when Pollard showed up at the door on Christmas morning.

"She was shot and then he went to the next parent, Richard Hutson, and shot him," Marion County Sheriff's Office spokesperson Lauren Lettelier explained.

Richard Hutson, who was the girlfriend's father, did not survive. Mary Lou Hutson was reportedly in critical condition after being taken to an area hospital. The girlfriend and others in the home were not harmed.

The suspect later fatally shot himself when Florida police attempted to pull over his vehicle about 350 miles away from the crime scene.

Pollard's father, Stephen, insisted that his son was not a violent person.

"I know my son. That's not him, he was not a mean person," Stephen Pollard said on Saturday.

According to Pollard's father, his son had purchased a plane ticket for his girlfriend to come to Texas for the holidays. But when she wasn't able to come, Pollard decided to go get her.

"Something went wrong," Stephen Pollard remarked. "Nobody really knows what happened... They say he opened the door and started shooting. That doesn't sound very likely to me."

"Why would he drive all that way to kill somebody?" the father asked. "He was driving that way to see his girlfriend."

Stephen Pollard said that his son had spent time in the Air Force in Mississippi, and that he did not own a gun.

Watch the video below from WFAA, broadcast Dec. 27, 2014.