A 44 year old man from Tyler, Texas fired several shots at his ex-wife with a handgun of currently unknown caliber, on Monday afternoon. The two had met each other to exchange custody of the children, meaning that while daddy was firing shots at mommy, they were somewhere nearby...lovely.

Thankfully no one was hurt during the incident, and the man fled the scene before police had a chance to arrive. Officers, however, were quickly able to locate the man, at his residence. Police officers surrounded the home, and negotiated briefly with him, before he willingly came out of the house and surrendered himself to the police.

The man was charged with aggravated assault of a deadly weapon and arrested. He is currently being held in the Smith County Jail, bail has not yet been set.

Many people in both the professional as well as the parenting world, recommend meeting your ex-spouse at a neutral location to do a custody exchange of the children. Removing yourself from emotionally charged locations, such as the former family home, for custody exchanges is a good idea for disputing ex-couples, however, it is important to keep in mind that you want whatever site that you choose as your exchange location to be a public location! Do not choose somewhere that is isolated, or poorly lit. People are more apt to keep their behaviors in check when they are surrounded by other people. The idea of the public embarrassment, or on a more dangerous note, potential witnesses can stop a lot of people at the end of their fuse from completely blowing their top.

And please, always remember that if you are doing a custody exchange , your children are right there! Everything that you say and do is being watched and taken in with absolute attention, even if you think they aren't looking, can't hear you, or can't see you...they are there! This may be something that you and your battling ex may want to remind each other before doing the exchange to help keep things calm.