A Florida girl played dead after being attacked by her father and seeing her 3-year-old sister dead on the floor. She escaped the home and walked about one mile to McDonald’s to ask for help.
The father, Jun Bravo-Torres, 39, stabbed his 3-year-old daughter to death and attempted to do the same with his 12-year-old daughter, said Police Sgt. Derek Chenoweth of the Longwood Police Department.
Early Thursday morning, the older daughter awoke to her father reaching for her neck, when he grabbed and cut her throat, according to an arrest affidavit.
She tried to flee the room when Bravo-Torres left to get another knife and saw her sister lying dead in the hallway. When he returned, the girl fought back before playing dead after being stabbed multiple times.
Both girls were dragged into a bathroom, where Bravo-Torres turned off the lights and cut his wrists and throat, Chenoweth said.
Bloodied and injured, the 12-year-old lay still until her father lost consciousness. She left the house and walked roughly a mile to a McDonald’s, where her mother worked, and another worker dialed 911 to the Longwood Police.
At 5:40 a.m, police arrived at the home and discovered the 3-year-old’s body and Bravo-Torres unconscious in the bathroom. Bravos-Torres was rushed to the hospital and is in critical condition.
“At that age, to be sleeping and woken up by being attacked with a knife, seeing your younger sister in the condition she was in, fighting off your father, and having the mindset to think, ‘How am I going to get out of this?’ When he lost consciousness, she got out of the house, and she went to where she knew her mom was, and it’s just remarkable,” remarked Chenoweth in a press conference.
“Grown adults may not have been able to come to that decision, and this 12-year-old did that, and she’s alive today because of the choices that she made.”
Bravo-Torres is under arrest and faces first-degree premeditated murder and attempted murder charges. He is being held at John E. Polk Correctional Facility.
Balloons and flowers have been left at a memorial site for the 3-year-old girl by officers and neighbors.
