Child in car seat and 2 adults dead in a shooting at Kendall shopping center, police say
A man shot and killed a woman and a 3-year-old boy who was sitting in a car seat before turning the gun on himself and ending his life Friday morning, according to Miami-Dade police.
The shooting happened outside a Chase Bank branch at the Meadows shopping plaza at 4200 SW 152nd Ave. in West Kendall, said Detective Luis Sierra, a police spokesman.
Around 7:40 a.m., a Miami-Dade Police Hammocks District sergeant rushed to the sound of gunshots at the shopping center, Sierra told reporters during a briefing later in the morning.
When the officer arrived at the bank, he discovered three people dead — a man, a woman and a child. Police Friday afternoon identified the woman as 43-year-old Odalys Bancroft and Theodore Couto, who would have turned 4 next month. Police did not confirm the relationship between the two.
The preliminary investigation revealed Bancroft and Couto were inside a minivan in the ATM line at Chase.
A man pulled up next to her in an SUV and opened fire, killing them. He then shot himself, Sierra said.
“Our prayers go out to the affected families, and Homicide is doing the best they can to solve what had happened,” Sierra said.
Vicente Couto, the boy’s father and the ex-husband of Bancroft, declined to speak about the tragedy when reached by the Miami Herald Friday night.
Police have not released the dead man’s name because they are waiting to notify his next of kin, said Miami-Dade Detective Andre Martin, another police spokesman.
In a graphic cellphone video obtained by the Herald that was filmed by witnesses parked across the street from the bank, the man can be seen firing into the minivan before turning around and walking to his SUV. The witnesses flagged a Miami-Dade police officer in a patrol car.
“Hey, they just killed someone! They’re shooting over there,” the couple tells the officer, who is seen heading toward the bank before the footage stops. The Miami Herald is not publishing the video.
The shooting comes a day after a murder-suicide inside a Coral Gables apartment. Police say a 61-year-old man shot and killed his 41-year-old domestic partner, then shot and wounded her 20-year-old son.
A witness who only provided her first name — Rosalba — told reporters at the scene Friday morning that she heard the chaos while buying a cup of coffee at the plaza.
“It was shots after shots. It was a lot of shots,” Rosalba said. “It seemed like there was some type of confrontation, but for a moment we thought it was a robbery.”
If you or someone you know is thinking about self harm, call the toll-free National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255). It’s available 24/7.
Miami Herald staff writer Milena Malaver contributed to this report.
