An unidentified gunman shot and killed husband-and-wife landlords of a Hialeah, Fla. apartment complex before terrorizing the building on Friday night, the Miami Herald reports. The gunman also fatally shot six other tenants before being shot and killed by SWAT team members.
Italo and Samira Pisciotti went to a fourth floor apartment to follow up on a complaint when shots were fired. According to neighbors who spoke to the Miami Herald, the gunman lived with his mother and it is believed that a fire had started in the unit. The Pisciottis kept insisting on calling the fire department when neighbors say the gunman got angry and started shooting. One tenant said he fired 15 to 20 shots at the couple.
"I saw my mother's dead body," Shamira Pisciotti told the newspaper. She lived in the same building her parents managed.
She said it looked like her mother had died instantly but her father might have still been alive after being shot. Her parents had managed the building for 20 years and were a month away from celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary, the Miami Herald reports.
Witnesses said the gunman then went out onto his balcony and started firing at law enforcement officials who had arrived on the scene. One of his bullets hit a man walking his son into the apartment building across the street.
The gunman then reportedly went inside the building to a third floor unit and shot and killed the three tenants that were hiding inside. According to ABC News, the gunman walked up and down the floors of the building shooting people in the hallway and in elevators.
After an hours-long negotiation talks of surrendering "just fell apart" and "they made the decision to go in there and save and rescue the hostages," Hialeah Police Sgt. Eddie Rodriguez told ABC.
Police are still working to identify the gunman's identity as well as his motives.
