Florida shooting that left 3 dead, including a 13-year-old girl, started over a dog dispute
(WPBF/CNN/Meredith) — Florida police say a shooting that left three people dead, including a 13-year-old girl, started with a court dispute over a dog.
Port St. Lucie police say the suspect and the victims were neighbors who were having a dispute about a dog that was deemed dangerous in court earlier Monday.
St. Lucie County Sheriff Ken Mascera said after everyone came home from court, the suspect armed himself and went into the victims’ house.
“If you heard this call come over the radio, it would make the hair on your neck stand up — a little girl calls in saying ‘there’s someone shooting in our house, I think my parents are dead, I think my family is dead,’” Mascera said.
When police responded, they found an adult male dead and a 13-year-old girl critically injured. She later died at the hospital. Two others were able to escape the house but were taken to the hospital. The extent of their injuries is unclear.
Officers encountered the suspect inside the victims’ home. They exchanged gunfire with the suspect. One officer was injured, and the suspect was killed. It is unclear if the suspect killed himself or was killed by police.
The officer who was shot is expected to survive.
A neighbor said he heard the gunshots but thought they were fireworks because he never expected something like this to happen in their neighborhood.
“Nothing like this has ever happened in the last 20 years. It’s a great neighborhood. Something as crazy as this happening over somebody getting emotional over a dog, is unheard of,” Charles D’Agata said.
Assistant Port St. Lucie Police Chief Richard Del Toro agreed that the shooting was uncharacteristic for the neighborhood.
“It’s just shocking and it’s just tragic. It’s not characteristic for this neighborhood or the city but we are going to do everything we can to find out all the reasons why,” Del Toro said.
Port St. Lucie police are now leading the homicide investigation.
Port St. Lucie is located on Florida’s Atlantic coast, about 125 southeast of Orlando.
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