MIAMI – Miami police identified the man and woman found dead on a Brickell sidewalk after a murder-suicide and outlined what led up to the shooting outside of a luxury apartment building Wednesday night.
The shooting happened around 9:20 p.m. outside the SOMA at Brickell building in the 100 block of Southwest 12th Street.
According to police, Dumuta Szerika, 49, and Coclea Gheorghe Cristian, 48, were Romanian nationals who resided in Pennsylvania and had been in a romantic relationship for the past two years.
Officer Kiara Delva, a spokesperson with the Miami Police Department, said Szerika traveled to Miami, along with her 14-year-old son, to stay with her 27-year-old daughter in an effort to get away from Cristian.
Delva said Cristian appears to have followed Szerika to Miami in an attempt to rekindle their relationship.
After rebuffing that attempt, Delva said Cristian shot Szerika before turning the gun on himself. Officials pronounced both dead at the scene.
“(A)t this time there does not appear to have been a history of domestic violence between the two, however detectives continue to investigate their background/history,” Delva said.
The shooting allegedly happened in front of the victim’s two children.
Residents in the high-end urban neighborhood were shocked by the shooting.
“When I was on my balcony, I saw the bodies on the ground,” one neighbor, who identified himself as Manny, said. “I was concerned because we have a few friends over there.”