HIALEAH, Fla. – Police released audio Tuesday of a 911 call placed by a Hialeah 13-year-old moments after they said he fatally stabbed his mother.
Derek Rosa is accused of murdering his mother, Irina Garcia, on the night of Oct. 12. Police said they found her lying dead next to a crib containing her sleeping newborn baby at the family’s apartment at 211 W. 79th Place.
The 14-day-old girl was unharmed, police said.
The call came into police just after 11:30 p.m. Rosa is heard saying his mother was dead:
Dispatcher: I need to know if your mom is breathing.
Rosa: She’s dead, miss. (Redacted)
Dispatcher: OK, and why did you do that?
Rosa: There’s blood all over the floor.
911 call audio
Later in the call, Rosa said there was a gun in the living room and he attempted to shoot himself.
“I loaded it, I pulled back the slide, but I did not shoot,” he told the dispatcher.
He later tells the dispatcher he took pictures after the killing and sent them to a friend:
Rosa: Miss?
Dispatcher: Yes.
Rosa: I took pictures and I told my friends about it. Was that bad?
Dispatcher: You told who about it?
Rosa: My friend.
Dispatcher: Your friend? You sent pictures to your friend about what you did?
Dispatcher: Yeah.
911 call audio
Rosa then says he sent the pictures to an “online friend.”
“I don’t know his real name because he’s an online friend who I play with a lot,” he told the dispatcher. “I didn’t delete the pictures off my phone, but I sent them to him, and I told him that I was sorry and goodbye. Goodbye to him.”
He later told the dispatcher he was “really sad” about what happened.
As Hialeah police arrived at the apartment, Rosa is heard asking the dispatcher, “Miss, are they gonna kill me?”
“No, they’re not gonna kill you,” the dispatcher replies.
Police took Rosa into custody on a second-degree murder charge. The teenager, described as an honor student with no previous history of mental health issues, is being held in juvenile detention, with a hearing scheduled for Nov. 2.
The morning after the murder, police said they were “dumbfounded” by the crime and said Rosa did not provide a motive. As of Tuesday, authorities hadn’t released details about whether they had discovered one.