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'It's heartbreaking': Friends of woman killed by deputy husband raise money for their kids

Deputies say the couple's four kids were home when the shooting happened.

LAND O' LAKES, Fla. -- A Hillsborough County deputy is accused of killing his own wife before turning the gun on himself. Investigators say the shooting happened around midnight at Kirk and Samantha Keithley’s home in Land O' Lakes.

Samantha’s friend shared the desperate text messages she sent her before she was found dead.

"Kirk has lost his mind," Samantha texted about her husband. "I just chucked my ring outside."

Deputies say the four kids they raised together were home when the shooting happened.

“It’s heartbreaking,” Chris McLaughlin, who worked with Samantha at Keller Williams Lakeland, said. “She was doing two different jobs. She was working over at the Hard Rock. She was working in real estate. She was raising four kids. She was Wonder Woman.”

McLaughlin and his team have started a GoFundMe to raise money for the kids, who he said are now with Samantha's father.

“These children woke up today with their whole entire life upside down, and it's up to us as a community to come around them,” he said.

Deputy Kirk Keithley worked for the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office. Before that, he spent several years as an officer with the St. Pete Police Department.

“Once you stop protecting people, we don't consider you a law enforcement officer,” Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco said.

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