Man, woman and child die in apparent suicide in Miami-Dade, police say

MIAMI – A man, a woman and a child were killed in a suspected murder-suicide in southwest Miami-Dade on Friday morning, police said.

At about 7:37 a.m., an on-duty Miami-Dade Police District Sergeant Hammocks was driving south on 152nd Avenue and approaching Bird Road when he heard gunshots, according to MDPD Detective Luis Sierra.

Once he tracked down the location of the noise, he came across the crime scene at a Chase Bank, where he found three dead bodies – a man, a woman identified as 43-year-old Odalys Bancroft, and a child, Sierra told reporters during a news conference Friday morning. Shortly afterward, the Miami-Dade Fire Department was called to the scene.

According to preliminary investigations, the woman and child were waiting in a minivan in the bank’s drive-thru lane when the man pulled into another drive-thru lane, opened fire and then turned the gun on himself.

Sierra said: “Apparently the woman was driving to the bank with the child in a minivan. I don’t know what she was doing in the bank. She was standing in line at the ATM when an unknown man pulled up next to her in his SUV and opened fire, killing both the woman and the child, as well as himself.”

Rosa Alba had stopped at a restaurant in the mall when she heard the shots. She said: “I heard a lot of shots and tried to take cover. I was scared because there were so many shots. It’s very sad because a child was involved. The police got here very quickly.”

Neighbors said they were sad and confused.

Michelle Abreu said: “I’m a mother and I just came from my granddaughter’s show. She’s 2 years old. This touches me because I saw all these little children. I would like to know why this happened and all I can say is that people need help. People shouldn’t go that far. This is domestic violence and if you see something, say something.”

Neighbor Demetri Simon said, “It’s shocking to see something like this in this community and it’s heartbreaking. Every parent is worried about their children and their safety and we wonder if a random guy on the street can turn around at any time. We need to be careful and prevent something like this from happening in the future. We need to take steps to prevent this and protect our children.”

The incident occurs one day after another Murder-suicide in Coral Gables in an apartment building.

According to Miami-Dade police, a 61-year-old man shot and killed a 41-year-old woman with whom he was in a romantic relationship and wounded his 20-year-old son before committing suicide.

Chopper4 spotted a silver BMW SUV with its doors open in the drive-thru lane of a Chase Bank and another vehicle in the adjacent lane above the crime scene at the Meadows Shopping Center.

Sierra said homicide investigators are currently trying to determine the relationship between all three. Although the ages of the two individuals have not yet been determined, Sierra said the child was in a car seat at the time of the shooting.

“The homicide squad is doing its best to determine exactly what happened,” he said.

The intersection of Bird Road and SW 152nd Avenue was closed for police investigation.