A heavily armed shooter killed four people in a brutal attack in the US state of Florida on Sunday. The perpetrator shot a man and a woman and a baby that the woman was holding in a house near Lakeland that night, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said at a press conference.
An eleven-year-old girl was shot several times, but survived. Another woman was killed in another house on the property.
The attacker had a shootout with police officers on the premises and surrendered in the end, said Judd. The man wore full riot gear including a bulletproof vest. Dozens, if not hundreds, of shots were fired during the exchange of fire with the police officers who had rushed up. “He came for a gun fight,” said Judd. “We do not know, why.”
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According to initial findings, the shooter is a 33-year-old who was in action for the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan. The man confessed that the victims begged him to let them live and that he shot them anyway. the Schütze also stated that he had taken metamphetamine. According to the first investigations, no connection between the perpetrator and the victims is known. “We only know that we had a crazy man with many guns who shot innocent people.”
Judd said that the night before, the residents of the house called the police because a man with a car appeared in front of the house and said, “God sent me to talk to one of your daughters.” When a police patrol arrived the suspect could not be found. The brutal attack finally took place a few hours later. Judd described the attacker as “heartless” and “evil to the core”. He also shot the family dog.
The attacker himself was injured in the exchange of fire with the police. After he surrendered, he was taken to the hospital. There he tried to take the gun from a police officer and was then immobilized. (dpa)
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