A Florida man fatally shot his girlfriend and three of her family members, including a 4-year-old, before shooting himself in the head Friday morning, the Orange County sheriff said.
Sheriff John Mina called the 4 a.m. slayings at the home in the eastern part of the county a horrific incident.
Deputies were called to the home after another family member, who was shot and wounded, went to a neighbor’s house for help, Mina said.
The matriarch of the family, 49; her two daughters, 28 and 29 years old; and the older woman’s 4-year-old granddaughter were killed, Mina said. They had been shot in the head.
The suspected gunman, Shavell Jordan Jones, 23, the boyfriend of the 29-year-old, was found alive with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, Mina said. He was in surgery Friday.
Two other children, 4 and 6 years old, were also found alive.
“They had hid under their blankets when the shooting started,” Mina said at a news conference. “And, thankfully, we found them unharmed in the home.”
Investigators believe that Jones got into an argument with someone at the home overnight and began moving out, Mina said.
Jones returned with a handgun and started shooting, the sheriff said.
Mina said Jones has no criminal history besides a failure to appear on a misdemeanor from a few years ago, and there had been no history of domestic or dating violence involving the sheriff’s office.
The woman who survived was described as in her 20s. Her medical condition was not provided.
The 4-year-old who was killed, as well as that child’s twin and the 6-year-old who survived are her children, Mina said.
If the suspected gunman survives, he will be charged in the killings, Mina said.
Investigators "are going to work very, very hard to find some answers and put the pieces together so we can find out why this happened," he said.
