Police: Man Kills Wife, Daughter, Mother-in-Law, Himself

Web Staff
By Web Staff
August 27, 2019US News
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Police: Man Kills Wife, Daughter, Mother-in-Law, Himself
A stock photo of police tape (Larry W. Smith/Getty Images)

PEMBROKE PINES, Florida—Authorities say a man fatally shot his wife, his mother-in-law, and one of his twin daughters before turning the gun on himself at a Florida home.

A Pembroke Pines police news release says the shooting occurred Sunday night, Aug. 25.

Police say officers responded to the Grand Palms community, where 911 dispatchers told them that a man, later identified as 35-year-old Pablo Colon Jr., said he killed family members and was intending to take his own life.

Police Captain Adam Feiner told CBS4, there was also an initial call that came from the mother-in-law, Olga Alvarez.

A rapid response team entered the home, and officers found that Colon Jr., killed his wife’s, identified as 36-year-old Sandra Colon, Sandra Colon’s mother, 61-year-old Olga Alvarez, and the Colons’s 3-year-old twin daughter before taking his own life.

“Once members of the Pembroke Pines Police Department made forced entry, four deceased victims were identified,” Captain Feiner told the Miami Herald.

Colon left one daughter alive, the twin sister of the 3-year-old. The girl was taken to a local hospital with injuries not considered life-threatening and later released to family.

According to The Herald, the family rented the home—located at 1657 SW 156th Avenue in the Grove Estates subdivision of Grand Palms in Pembroke Pines—for the last six months.

Colon Jr. didn’t have a previous criminal record and no service calls were made in the past to the family’s home, police said.

Police didn’t immediately release a motive for the shooting and said it remains under active investigation.

“The suspect didn’t leave any kind of note or any type of evidence leading us to quickly identify a motive,” Feiner told the Miami Herald.

According to the release, the murder-suicide appears domestic in nature with no threat to the community.

Murder-Suicide in California

In a separate incident in June, five people were killed in California in an apparent murder-suicide after a four-hour standoff, San Jose police said.

Chi Dinh Ta, 66, reportedly shot and killed the group of three women and one man; Le Thuy Hoang, 51, of Milpitas; Thanh Hoa Hoang, 23; Thi Que Pham, 42, and Phung Ngoc Hoang, 28, reported CBS SF.

San Jose police responded to reports of a shooting at around 8:30 p.m. on June 23, at a home on the 500 block of Habbitts Court. Officers reported witnessing who they believe were family members, fleeing the residence.

After killing the four victims, Le Thuy turned the gun on himself and died of a gunshot wound to the head, police said.

Suicide a Leading Cause of Death in the U.S.

According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report Vital Signs: Trends in State Suicide Rates on June 8, 2018, revealing that suicide rates have increased by 30 percent since 1999. However, the report points out that there were a variety of factors other than mental health conditions that lead to suicide.

“Suicide rates increased significantly across most states during 1999–2016. Various circumstances contributed to suicides among persons with and without known mental health conditions,” the report stated.

The Associated Press, Epoch Times reporter Isabel van Brugen and NTD News reporter Lorenz Duchamps contributed to this article.

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