MIAMI — Miami-Dade police found five people dead in a Miami Lakes home Friday morning, including one man they believe killed the rest before turning the gun on himself.
“Everything is indicating to us that this is a murder-suicide,” Miami-Dade County police spokesman Alvaro Zabaleta told the Miami Herald after a news conference in the quiet enclave just off Northwest 87th Avenue.
The scene is a stark contrast to the one resident Veronica Santiago is accustomed to.
“We ride bikes through here, it is a super safe neighborhood,” she told a gaggle of reporters. “Never anything happens like this. This is crazy, out of the ordinary.”
Just before 10 a.m. 911 received a call from a relative who could not contact a loved one inside the home, Ramirez said. The relative drove to the house, met officers and explained the situation to them. From there, Ramirez said, officers checked for open doors before finding an unlocked window and entering the home.
Once inside, they found five people – three women and two men – inside the home dead from gunshot wounds.
“They kept finding in different locations of the house more bodies, and they were all deceased from apparent gunshot wounds,” Zabaleta told the Herald.
Two of the bodies were found in two separate bedrooms, he said. Another was found in the garage.
Santiago said she and her husband heard helicopters flying over their neighborhood and saw police dogs. That’s when they went to pick their children up from school.
“We didn’t know if there was somebody on the loose,” she said.
Santiago and her husband did not hear any gunshots, but said “the only thing that I do know is that he was not well in the head,” she said of the suspected shooter.
Zabaleta said officers had not interviewed the relative who found the five bodies at the scene, so any details regarding identities have not been released.
Despite the tragedy, Zabaleta said he doesn’t want residents to think they’re in danger.
“We feel that everything here is contained and isolated to this resident and there’s not necessarily a public safety factor.”
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(Miami Herald staff writer Charles Rabin contributed to this coverage.)
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