aGameOfThrones
07-27-2013, 03:39 PM
A gunman killed the husband-and-wife managers of a Hialeah apartment complex, then terrorized the building for hours, killing four other people before a SWAT team took him down in a hail of bullets on Saturday.
The violence started about 6:30 p.m. Friday, when building managers Italo and Camira Pisciotti went to speak with a fourth-floor tenant who lived with his mother, according to police and witnesses. The tenant, Pedro Alberto Vargas, 42, fired about 15 to 20 shots at the Pisciottis, killing them. Italo was 78, Camira was 68.
“I saw my mother’s dead body,” said Shamira Pisciotti, who lives in a unit at the building her parents managed. “She died the moment she was shot, but it looks like my dad was still alive after he was shot.”
The Pisciottis, who were from Colombia, had managed the building for 20 years and were a month away from celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary. They were babysitting their 9-year-old granddaughter when the shootings happened.
Mariano Arias, 46, who lives on the building’s second floor, said he heard Vargas’ 83-year-old mother, Esperanza Patterson, scream to the Pisciottis, “Get my son out of the apartment!” A moment later, Arias heard gunshots. “I hit the ground,” he said.
From a balcony, Vargas then opened fire at fire-rescue workers who arrived at the scene. One of his bullets struck a man who was walking with his son into a building across 46th Street, killing him. The man was identified by Hialeah police as Carlos Javier Gavilanes.“From up there, he was able to shoot at people across the street, catching this one man who was just walking into his apartment,” Hialeah Police Sgt. Eddie Rodriguez said.
Vargas then moved inside, to a third-floor unit. Arias said the unit’s door lock was shot out, and its three tenants — a man, woman and teenage daughter — were killed. The 17-year-old girl had been hiding in a bathroom, he said.
Vargas then went upstairs, where he took two hostages in a fifth-floor unit and put his gun to their heads. When talks with police negotiators fell through about 2 a.m. Saturday, SWAT officers stormed the building, shooting Vargas dead.
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/07/27/3525365/seven-dead-after-standoff-shootings.html#storylink=cpy
The violence started about 6:30 p.m. Friday, when building managers Italo and Camira Pisciotti went to speak with a fourth-floor tenant who lived with his mother, according to police and witnesses. The tenant, Pedro Alberto Vargas, 42, fired about 15 to 20 shots at the Pisciottis, killing them. Italo was 78, Camira was 68.
“I saw my mother’s dead body,” said Shamira Pisciotti, who lives in a unit at the building her parents managed. “She died the moment she was shot, but it looks like my dad was still alive after he was shot.”
The Pisciottis, who were from Colombia, had managed the building for 20 years and were a month away from celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary. They were babysitting their 9-year-old granddaughter when the shootings happened.
Mariano Arias, 46, who lives on the building’s second floor, said he heard Vargas’ 83-year-old mother, Esperanza Patterson, scream to the Pisciottis, “Get my son out of the apartment!” A moment later, Arias heard gunshots. “I hit the ground,” he said.
From a balcony, Vargas then opened fire at fire-rescue workers who arrived at the scene. One of his bullets struck a man who was walking with his son into a building across 46th Street, killing him. The man was identified by Hialeah police as Carlos Javier Gavilanes.“From up there, he was able to shoot at people across the street, catching this one man who was just walking into his apartment,” Hialeah Police Sgt. Eddie Rodriguez said.
Vargas then moved inside, to a third-floor unit. Arias said the unit’s door lock was shot out, and its three tenants — a man, woman and teenage daughter — were killed. The 17-year-old girl had been hiding in a bathroom, he said.
Vargas then went upstairs, where he took two hostages in a fifth-floor unit and put his gun to their heads. When talks with police negotiators fell through about 2 a.m. Saturday, SWAT officers stormed the building, shooting Vargas dead.
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/07/27/3525365/seven-dead-after-standoff-shootings.html#storylink=cpy