PEMBROKE PARK, Fla. – A detective held a grandmother who was crying and screaming after deputies found a family of six shot in Broward County.
A gunman shot four children aged 2 to 11 and a 32-year-old mother before shooting himself on Wednesday night in Pembroke Park, according to law enforcement sources.
Julie Cruz, and her 3 kids -- 2-year-olds Nova and Emery McKenzie and 11-year-old Xion Solomon -- died after the domestic shooting at about 7:30 p.m., near Hallandale Beach Boulevard and Lake Shore Drive, deputies said.
The gunman and 8-year-old Phiinyx Solomon were injured in the four-story apartment building at 3181 West Hallandale Boulevard, deputies said.
Pembroke Park Police Department officers and Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies were at the Sundrift building, a rental community with over 30 apartments, on Wednesday night and Thursday morning.
Angel Aquino, a Sundrift resident, was among the family’s neighbors who reported hearing a series of gunshots coming from the fourth floor before the police sirens. Others heard children screaming.
“A man tried to kill all his family,” Aquino said.
According to Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue Battalion Chief Michael Kane, fire rescue personnel took a man and a pediatric patient to hospitals in Hollywood. She was at the Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital and he was at the Memorial Regional Hospital.
The gunman who survived is the biological father of the two slain toddlers, but not of the two Solomon kids, according to deputies.
Pembroke Park police officers turned over the investigation to BSO homicide detectives, who were still working on the case on Thursday afternoon, police said.
Detectives asked anyone with information about the case to call Broward County Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477 to remain anonymous.
Local 10 News Assignment Desk Editor Wilson Louis and Reporter Terrell Forney contributed to this report.
Reporters’ notes after speaking to law enforcement sources
- Six people were shot: A father, a mother, and four children. The father and a girl survived.
- The mother fatally shot was Julie Cruz and the children killed were Nova, Emery, and Xion.
- The biological father of 2-year-olds Nova and Emery McKenzie was the shooter who attempted to kill himself.
- Cruz’s 8-year-old daughter Phiinyx Solomon survived. She is Xion’s sister and the toddlers’ half-sister.
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