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December 10, 2003, 10:00 P.M.

Memorial Hermann Sugar Land Hospital

West Grand Parkway South

Sugar Land, Texas

According to Kent Whitaker in Murder by Family, where he detailed the night of the murders, he was joined at the hospital by both of his parents. He described being surrounded by doctors and nurses as well, and realized no one would tell him anything about his other family members. When he asked about Tricia, Kevin, and Bart, he was told by a nurse that he and Bart would be undergoing surgery. No mention was made of Tricia or Kevin. Their omissions worried him.

According to Kent, he spoke with his parents. “Mom, I think there’s a good chance that Tricia and Kevin are dead.” He then looked toward an administration representative for confirmation. “Isn’t that so?” he queried, worried what the true answer would be. The representative stared back at him, an eternity frozen between two strangers. She broke the hold with a slight nod, up and down.

“It is,” she quietly muttered.

Soon thereafter, Bart was airlifted into the hospital as well. Kent was informed that Bart had been rather heroic in his attempt to tackle the shooter and had been shot in the shoulder in the process. His oldest son was in a state of shock about the events that had just occurred, but he would be all right.

Both Kent and Bart were ably tended to by the Memorial Hermann staff. Both men had suffered a broken arm and were both set in temporary casts. According to Kent, the bullet he had taken had “entered my right shoulder and traveled through the arm muscle, striking midhumerus and shattering the bone.”

Bart had been shot in the left arm, which had also been broken.

The arms of the Whitaker men weren’t the only things to be set and healed that night. According to Kent, a self-described very religious man, he “felt God’s presence and comfort” in his hospital room the night of the murders. As a constant stream of well-wishers respectfully marched in and out of his hospital room, he claimed that “Scriptures of comfort came to mind” and described it as if “God gave me a shot of Novocain” to deal with the pain of the complete and total upheaval he was now about to embark on.

Miraculously, on the same night his beloved wife, Tricia, and his equally beloved youngest son, Kevin, were murdered, Kent Whitaker decided to invoke a “conscious act of will.” He forgave the shooter.

Not wanting to be burdened with the additional emotional turmoil wrought by anger, Kent made an emphatic decision to forgo anger and hatred. Instead, he decided to turn his faith over to God. According to Kent, he stated, “I wanted whoever was responsible to come to Christ and repent for this awful act.”

Kent’s decision to forgive startled even himself. Earlier, he felt the normal feelings of an individual who had a loved one ripped away from him—depression, anger, the desire to kill his wife and son’s killer. He stated, however, that once he decided to forgive the killer for the murders, “This forgiveness astounded me.” He believed the act saved his life and changed everything for the better.