Police in Texas have charged a former Quebec resident in the shootings -- one fatal -- of his two children.

Predrag Perisic, 54, is in custody in Texas, where he is accused of fatally shooting his son, Deyan Perisic, and wounding of his 12-year-old daughter, Danyela Perisic, in a Houston suburb Tuesday.

Danyela is in stable condition in a Texas hospital. Her family said she was struck eight times as she attempted to protect her brother, who was shot at point-blank range and later died in hospital.

Family members told CTV News an ugly custody battle spanning two countries drove a wedge between Perisic and his estranged wife, Vera Vucerakovich.

Perisic is accused of failing to return the kids to their mother, who was awarded custody. The children were reported missing in late October.

The shooting occurred as police officers closed in on Perisic's home in Coldspring, Tex., to seize the children and arrest him on kidnapping charges.

None of the allegations against Perisic have been proven in court.

Grieving relatives are struggling to understand why the such violence claimed the life of one child, and critically wounded another.

Looking over Deyan's drawings of retired NHL stars Guy LaFleur and Patrick Roy, Pololos described the boy as one who loved hockey.

"Good kids, smart kids, athletic, studious, good in school. They were perfect angels," Pololos said.

"There was a lot of episodes of physical violence where the police were called, verbal violence," said Jonathan Shulak, the family's lawyer.

The family moved to the Houston area from Montreal because Perisic got a job but Vucerakovich decided in January to return to Quebec after the marriage broke down.

This move set off a period of legal wrangling in courts in Quebec and Texas. Perisic wanted the kids to live with him in Texas but Vucerakovich wanted them to be with her in Montreal, where they have lived for most of their lives.

The kids were awarded to their father by a Quebec Superior Court Judge but another judge later awarded custody to Vucerakovich.

"We promised them that we would get them back, we promised them that we would fight for them, that we would do everything that we could to get them back here," a tearful Pololos said.

With reports from CTV's Paul Karwatsky and Caroline van Vlaardingen