"Mass shooting" in Hialeah, Florida - 7 Dead, Including Gunmen.

TumbleWeed Sat Jul 27, 2013 3:13 pm

IALEAH (CBSMiami/AP) - Police believe a shootout in Hialeah that left 7 dead, including the gunman, might be one of the deadliest mass shootings in the city’s history. The ordeal lasted approximately eight hours, ending when the SWAT team took down the suspected gunman that had barricaded himself in an apartment holding two people hostage.
Saturday afternoon, police released the names of the six victims shot and killed by the gunman. According to police the victims are: Italo Pisciotti, 79, Camira Pisciotti, 69, Carlos Javier Gavilanes, 33, Patricio Simono, 64, Merly S. Niebles, 51, and a 17-year-old girl whose name has not been identified.
The gunman has been identified as 42-year-old Pedro Alberto Vargas.
SWAT teams surrounded the 95-unit, five-story apartment complex near 1480 W. 46 Street just after 7 p.m. Friday night in search for the gunman.

After a several hour standoff, six were killed, three women and three men, along with the shooter gunned down by police early morning Saturday.
“The bad guy is down, he’s dead, he cannot hurt anybody anymore and now it slows down and we find out exactly what happened here,” said Carl Zogby of the Hialeah Police Department.
Neighbors at home were told by police to keep their doors locked, blinds closed and lights off. A nearby Home Depot was on lock down because of the incident.
Sgt. Eddie Rodriguez told the Associated Press that when the police first arrived, they discovered an active shooter situation:”He’s inside the building, moving from floor to floor. Eventually he barricades himself in an apartment.”
He said police discovered two people, a male and female, shot to death in the hallway in front of one unit. Three more, a male and two females, were found shot and killed in another apartment on a different floor. Another man who was walking his children into an apartment across the street also was killed. Rodriguez said it wasn’t immediately clear whether the gunman took aim at him from an upper-level balcony or if he was hit by a stray bullet.
A crisis team was able to briefly establish communication with the man. Rodriguez said negotiators and a SWAT team tried talking with him from the other side of the door of an apartment unit where he was holding two hostages.
But Rodriguez said the talks eventually “just fell apart” leading to a gunfire exchange with officers which led to the fatal shooting of the gunman.
“They made the decision to go in there and save and rescue the hostages,” Rodriguez said. Both hostages survived. Rodriguez said he didn’t have any information on how long negotiations lasted.
Shamira Pisciotti, on Friday, said the gunman shot both her parents, her mother, 68 years-old, and father, 78 years-old, who were property managers at the apartment complex.
“I heard about 15-20 shots and so I went outside and my neighbors were screaming that my parents have been shot,” said Pisciotti.
Pisciotti and her fiancée said the shooting was the result of some sort of complaint.
“They got complaints from some neighbor that a situation was going on they went upstairs to do their duty as property managers,” said Pisciotti’s fiancée, who did not want to be identified.
“My mom was dead the moment that she was shot and my dad still had a pulse when I got to him, but by the time I got downstairs police were already getting ready to go in because they need to clear the scene before they let EMS in. I’m sure my dad passed away shortly after.”
Sgt. Rodriguez said police discovered two people, a male and female, shot to death in the hallway in front of one unit. Three more, a male and two females, were found shot and killed in another apartment on a different floor. Another man who was walking his children into an apartment across the street also was killed. Rodriguez said it wasn’t immediately clear whether the gunman took aim at him from an upper-level balcony or if he was hit by a stray bullet.
Zulima Niebles said police told her that three of her family members were among the victims. She said her sister Merly Sophia Niebles, her sister’s husband, and her sister’s daughter Priscila Perez, 16, were all shot and killed.
Zulima Niebles’ husband, Agustin Hernandez, was moving the family’s things out of the apartment building and into his car Saturday. Among them were several photos, one showing the teen girl smiling in a red graduation gown, another of his sister-in-law in a white dress, wearing pearls.
Marcela Chavarri, director of the American Christian School, said Priscila Perez, 16, was about to enter her senior year at the school.
“She was a lovely girl,” Chavarri said through tears. “She was always happy and helping her classmates.”
Neighbor Fabian Valdes, who lives across the street from the site of the standoff, said he heard shots fired and then looked out his window and saw a man lying on the floor, outside the front lobby. He was on his back and had his arms and legs outstretched.
Valdes said he was in shock. “It’s something you never expect,” he said.
Miriam Valdes, 70, said she lives on the top floor — one floor above where the shooting began. She said she heard gunfire and later saw smoke entering her apartment.
She described running in fear to the unit across the hall, where she stayed holed up as officers negotiated with the gunman.
From the apartment, Valdes said she could hear about eight officers talking with the gunman.
She said she heard the officers tell him to “let these people out.”
“We’re going to help you,” she said they told him.
She said the gunman first asked for his girlfriend and then his mother but refused to cooperate.
Ester Lazcano said she lives two doors down from where the shooting began and was in the shower when she heard the first shots. Then there were many more.
“I felt the shots,” she said.
Neighbors said the gunman lived in the building with his mother, but police wouldn’t confirm that information.
Rodriguez said police were still investigating identities of victims and the gunman, as well as a possible motive.
“Investigators are talking with families of the victims, neighbors, people that were present when all this began,” he said. “That way we can start to piece together this huge puzzle that we’re working with.”
The investigation continues and police have not yet released the identities of neither the victims nor the shooter.