https://news.vice.com/en_us/article...shooters-victims-were-women-police-chief-says
Armed with a gun, Zephen Xaver, 21, walked into a SunTrust Bank in Sebring, Florida, on Wednesday afternoon, took four employees and one customer hostage, and shot them dead. They were all women.
Then, Xaver called the police to tell them what he’d done.
While police made their way to the bank, just off a highway along Lake Jackson, dispatchers tried to keep Xaver on the phone. When SWAT arrived, he refused to allow officers access to the victims.
The police chief finally gave SWAT permission to break the bank’s windows and enter the building, and Xaver surrendered and was taken into custody. By then, all five women had succumbed to their injuries and were pronounced dead at the scene.
During a press conference Thursday morning, Sebring Police Chief Karl Hoglund said that three of the five victims’ families had requested their information be withheld. The other two victims, a customer and an employee, were identified as Cynthia Watson and Merciel Lopez, respectively.
“We have no information at this time as to what his true motive has been,” said Hoglund, who stressed that the investigation was ongoing and in its early stages. “We believe it was a random act, where nobody specifically was targeted.”
Hoglund also couldn’t say whether Xaver, who’s been charged with five counts of premeditated murder in the first degree, had the sole intention of killing people or if he also intended to rob the bank.
Law enforcement also didn't say what kind of gun Xaver had, but his ex-girlfriend, Alex Gerlach, told the Washington Post that Xaver said he’d bought a gun just last week. She wasn’t especially surprised given that he’d always liked firearms.
Armed with a gun, Zephen Xaver, 21, walked into a SunTrust Bank in Sebring, Florida, on Wednesday afternoon, took four employees and one customer hostage, and shot them dead. They were all women.
Then, Xaver called the police to tell them what he’d done.
While police made their way to the bank, just off a highway along Lake Jackson, dispatchers tried to keep Xaver on the phone. When SWAT arrived, he refused to allow officers access to the victims.
The police chief finally gave SWAT permission to break the bank’s windows and enter the building, and Xaver surrendered and was taken into custody. By then, all five women had succumbed to their injuries and were pronounced dead at the scene.
During a press conference Thursday morning, Sebring Police Chief Karl Hoglund said that three of the five victims’ families had requested their information be withheld. The other two victims, a customer and an employee, were identified as Cynthia Watson and Merciel Lopez, respectively.
“We have no information at this time as to what his true motive has been,” said Hoglund, who stressed that the investigation was ongoing and in its early stages. “We believe it was a random act, where nobody specifically was targeted.”
Hoglund also couldn’t say whether Xaver, who’s been charged with five counts of premeditated murder in the first degree, had the sole intention of killing people or if he also intended to rob the bank.
Law enforcement also didn't say what kind of gun Xaver had, but his ex-girlfriend, Alex Gerlach, told the Washington Post that Xaver said he’d bought a gun just last week. She wasn’t especially surprised given that he’d always liked firearms.
