Authorities believe an Oak Point man was intoxicated when he fatally shot his 10-year-old daughter in the head inside their home on Christmas Eve.

It's still unclear what led to the shooting, but investigators do not think 36-year-old Duke Lawrence Watrous meant to kill Ashley Watrous.

"At this point, it doesn't appear to be deliberate, but there's definitely some recklessness involved," said Texas Ranger Tracy Murphree, one of the investigators on the case.

Watrous was being held on a manslaughter charge at the Denton County Jail on Friday night. Bail was set at $200,000.

Police also recovered several other guns, some of which were not properly secured, from the home in the 500 block of Naylor Road in Oak Point, which is east of Denton. Watrous has not provided police any information about what happened, Murphree said.

The family had company earlier in the evening. At the time of the shooting Thursday night, Watrous, Ashley and two of her siblings, a 9-year-old boy and a 1-year-old girl, are believed to have been in the house.

Duke Lawrence Watrous

The boy called 911 to report the shooting, officials said.

"He said her father had shot her," said Denton County sheriff's spokesman Tom Reedy.

It is unclear how much time passed between the shooting and that call. Ashley was pronounced dead about 8:40 p.m. on the family's dining room table, where she had been placed.

Police and paramedics who responded to the call were shaken by the death.

"It was just devastating to everybody who was there," Murphree said. "Being Christmas Eve just compounded the tragedy and everybody involved, including myself, was very upset about it."

Maria Gonzalez, a neighbor, said Ashley and one of her brothers brought over a Christmas tin filled with cookies earlier this week.

"I thought it was so precious of her," Gonzalez said. "It's something they did almost every year. I told her I didn't have anything for her and she said, 'That's OK.' That was very sweet."

In April, Duke Watrous was arrested on one count of injury to a child or an elderly person or disabled person. Details about the case were unavailable.

According to public records, Watrous owns a moving company named MoveCo.net.