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PASCO COUNTY, FLORIDA: In a tragic incident, a man fatally shot his wife and wounded their five-year-old daughter before reportedly killing himself on Tuesday, December 13.
Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco said in a press conference that the woman had returned to her home in Land O'Lakes around 8.15 pm when her husband ran up to her and the child, and started firing. The man fired several shots at the woman and left her to die in the front yard. The child somehow ran inside the house while being pursued by her father. A babysitter witnessed what had transpired and called 911, per NY Post.
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Upon their arrival, the deputies found the girl inside the house with a gunshot wound on her arm, according to PEOPLE. It was unclear if she was the intended target. According to Nocco, the girl told responding officers that her “daddy is upstairs. He's inside the master bathroom, and I heard a bang." The man was later found dead from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The identities of those involved have not been disclosed and it was unclear if the babysitter was also hurt during the incident.
The girl was rushed to a nearby hospital, where she is in a stable condition. "Tonight, we're dealing with a tragedy where a 5-year-old little girl no longer has a mother or father. This child is gonna have to carry this for the rest of her life. Anytime you talk about the Christmas season, she's gonna remember this horrific time," Nocco told reporters. He also revealed that the child's father was previously arrested in August for felony domestic battery. The girl's mother even had a restraining order against him at the time he committed Tuesday's murder-suicide.
In a frighteningly similar incident, a mother-of-two was shot dead in an apparent murder-suicide by her husband, who reportedly turned the gun on himself. The woman, 27-year-old Mikki Starr, was found dead at her home in Lima, Ohio, almost a week after the brutal murder. Police also found the body of her 29-year-old husband Zachary beside her. Law enforcement was alerted after family members noted that Zachary had posted some "alarming" messages on his Facebook account. The lead detective in the investigation, Detective Sergeant Jason Garlock, reportedly said, "We had information from family members that there were some social media messages that gave us the indication that’s what we’re probably looking at right now."