Four Dead In Florida Family Murder-Suicide
A 53-year-old music teacher fatally shot his wife and two daughters Wednesday before killing himself, while his 16-year-old son who survived the attack managed to call police as he escaped uninjured from the Miami home, authorities said.
Police haven't released names, but neighbors identified the family members as Pablo Josue Amador; his wife, Maria; their youngest daughters, Priscila and Rosa; and the escaped son, Javier. They said the couple also had a 19-year-old daughter who attends college.
CBS station WFOR in Miami reports that county records show the home is owned by Pablo and Maria Amador, 47, and that Maria worked at The Miami Project To Cure Paralysis, a research center dedicated to studies in the field of paralysis and spinal cord injury.
Sarait Betancourt, a 44-year-old school bus driver who lives near the family, said Amador is a Cuban immigrant who gave piano lessons at a guitar shop and at his home. Betancourt's two sons, ages 9 and 10, had been taking piano lessons from him once a week since 2006.
"He was a marvelous person and a tremendous professor," she said. "People would enter the house, and you just breathed peace."
Betancourt said all four children excelled at piano and performed together at church and home as Los Galileos. Authorities have not confirmed that there is a fourth sibling.
Officers went to the home in southern Miami-Dade County just before 6 a.m. to investigate reports of shots being fired. Police found a gun but didn't say what type or how many shots were believed fired.
Neighbors on the quiet street of modest single-family homes said there was nothing that particularly stood out about the family. Some remembered the father waving hello. Others remembered children playing in the family's in-ground pool and music emanating from the home.
Soraya Peer said she has lived next to the family for five years and had seen "nothing negative come out of that home before."
Christina Ruiz, a 23-year-old social work student who lives next to the family, described Amador as a "regular dad" who helped her grandmother jump-start her car several times but who was known to complain when he was bothered by noise or work being done on her house.
© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Police haven't released names, but neighbors identified the family members as Pablo Josue Amador; his wife, Maria; their youngest daughters, Priscila and Rosa; and the escaped son, Javier. They said the couple also had a 19-year-old daughter who attends college.
CBS station WFOR in Miami reports that county records show the home is owned by Pablo and Maria Amador, 47, and that Maria worked at The Miami Project To Cure Paralysis, a research center dedicated to studies in the field of paralysis and spinal cord injury.
Sarait Betancourt, a 44-year-old school bus driver who lives near the family, said Amador is a Cuban immigrant who gave piano lessons at a guitar shop and at his home. Betancourt's two sons, ages 9 and 10, had been taking piano lessons from him once a week since 2006.
"He was a marvelous person and a tremendous professor," she said. "People would enter the house, and you just breathed peace."
Betancourt said all four children excelled at piano and performed together at church and home as Los Galileos. Authorities have not confirmed that there is a fourth sibling.
Officers went to the home in southern Miami-Dade County just before 6 a.m. to investigate reports of shots being fired. Police found a gun but didn't say what type or how many shots were believed fired.
Neighbors on the quiet street of modest single-family homes said there was nothing that particularly stood out about the family. Some remembered the father waving hello. Others remembered children playing in the family's in-ground pool and music emanating from the home.
Soraya Peer said she has lived next to the family for five years and had seen "nothing negative come out of that home before."
Christina Ruiz, a 23-year-old social work student who lives next to the family, described Amador as a "regular dad" who helped her grandmother jump-start her car several times but who was known to complain when he was bothered by noise or work being done on her house.
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That's not true either. I have said many times that I recommend the same thing that criminologists across this nation recommend:reduce the prevalence of guns. You are either confused or lying. I vote for the latter.
That is not true. My posts have always said "reducing the prevalence of guns". You all know that.
Me too but most of them do not. The National Survey on Private Ownership and Use of Firearms found out that "Slightly more than half of all privately owned guns in the US are kept unlocked. Most of the locked guns are considered to be "poorly locked" either because the guns are locked up with flimsy locks or because unauthorized users know the combination to the lock or the location of the keys." Most gun related deaths occur at home. Gun related deaths are divided between homicides, suicides, accidental deaths, and those of undetermined intent. Most suicides occur at home as well as most accidental deaths. More than 1/3 of all homicides occur at home too. The main reason why most gun deaths occur at home is because guns are not properly secured giving access to them to depressed, suicidal, homicidal people. Even though guns at home increase the chances of death in your household locking up the guns could reduce those chances.
I have always being civil. My posts do not contain threats, insults, or profanities.
Then he said "I also agree with you that he has a right to have his opinions posted on this board, even if I disagree with him. I am willing to fight for his first amendment rights even if he would deny me my second amendment rights."
I don't really know how to reply to that statement except to say that I admire you for taking the high road. I guess I was wrong about you. You proved to be the better man. I do not want to deny you of your Second Amendment Rights. I do not advocate banning guns. Although I won't lose any sleep if they are banned I advocate "reducing the prevalence of guns". That means you could have guns but you should not have arsenals. Still I am very greateful for your statement. Even if you do not consider me a friend I will consider you to be one. That is the least I could do for you. Thank you.
Posted by mdalerwill at 9:38 AM : Feb 26, 2009
He has been civil on this board this time. I also agree with you that he has a right to have his opinions posted on this board, even if I disagree with him. I am willing to fight for his first amendment rights even if he would deny me my second amendment rights.
The Department of Justice reports close to 1.7 million gun reltaed crimes per year but just 82,000 attempts to stop crimes with guns mostly against unarmed criminals. 30,000 are killed and just 250 saved with guns. More than 2/3 of all spouses and ex-spouses killed are killed with guns. Close to 100,000 students, close to all the kids of gun owners, bring guns to school each day.
We have discussed close to 100 gun related stories or murders and suicides here on this blog. Close to 98% of those cases the shooters have been legal gun owners like you. You can't erase that.
People driven to the point of suicide are not thinking rationally. That would seem like an obvious thing to point out, but people are responding to this incident as though the man made a conscious and rational choice to commit a murder/suicide. In his mind, it is very likely he was first and foremost ending his own PAIN and sparing his family the suffering he believed was inevitable in life. People who want to kill themselves don't really want to die; they want the pain to end, and they come to a point wherein they don't see any way for that to happen without dying. One should also consider that studies are showing that a large percentage of people who commit suicide are suffering to some greater or lesser degree from brain disfunctions that affect things like neurotransmitters and reuptake processes. This takes one's emotions and dials up the intensity to a degree that is just physiologically impossible for a "normal" person, so when I say that most of you cannot understand how this man felt, I mean it literally.
What can we take from this that is actually productive? The importance of making mental health a higher priority in this country. In California, for instance, the budget crisis has led to some severe program cuts, and one of the programs that has been hit the hardest is mental health services. I wouldn't be surprised if the situation in other states is the same. It's a catch-22, as there is so little money to go around, yet here is a service that is so desperately needed, especially now that we are seeing a rise in the number of people coming back from military and contractor services in the Middle East with severe PTSD.