Davie neighborhood in shock after father shoots, kills his dying daughter, then himself, cops say

A Davie father and his daughter are dead after he shot the girl and himself Monday morning, police said.

Police say the 11-year-old daughter was suffering from a “debilitating terminal illness.” Her father shot his only child, then turned the gun on himself. She died in their home in the 14600 block of Southwest Eighth Court. He died later.

The girl’s mother also was home, but was not injured physically.

By early Monday evening, police had closed off much of the block, with at least six homes cordoned off by yellow police tape amid the manicured lawns and tree canopy. (Police removed the tape at 6 p.m.)

Three police cars were parked on the street, including one next to the home where the incident took place.

A neighbor who lives opposite the victims’ home, Randy Mogan, 60, said she met the family this spring.

In the early days of the coronavirus lockdown, Mogan would take daily walks down the street. She said she introduced herself to the family during one of those walks in early March.

“They seemed like a happy couple. They took walks down the street, too,” she said. “They were quiet; they kept to themselves.”

Mogan remembered watching the couple’s daughter cycling down the street and back on a pink bicycle every other day in March, April and May.

“She would come out often, but then two months ago she stopped. That must have been when she got sick,” Mogan said.

Mogan was visibly upset, rubbing her face with her hands and looking over to the home where the incident took place.

“He must have been overwhelmed with life when she got sick, that’s what I think. But I just didn’t know them that well,” she said.

Sharlene Wells, 84, a neighbor who has lived since 1986 in the home that’s three doors down from the crime scene, said she wasn’t home when the incident happened.

Wells said she left her house at 9 a.m. and by the time she returned at 10:30 a.m., dozens of police officers and journalists were crowding her doorstep.

She said she was shocked when she heard the news.

“This man must have been very distraught to kill his own daughter,” she said. “This is a very quiet neighborhood. I’ve seen only one robbery since I moved here, just around the corner, and that was just kids stealing toys.”

Wells did not know the family. She said she had “never heard of them.”

Police say they don’t have any updates.

The Herald has withheld the names until other relatives are informed.