SunTrust Bank Shootings: Chilling 9-1-1 Call, Victims Remembered

SEBRING, FL — When Highlands County Sheriff's deputies and Sebring Police swarmed the SunTrust Bank branch on U.S. Route 27 within two minutes of each other early Wednesday afternoon, they held out hope that some of the five victims inside would be alive.

Hope soon abandoned them.

"9-1-1. What is your emergency," said a female police dispatcher moments earlier as a chilling phone call landed on her line at 12:36 p.m. The call set in motion an unforgettable chain of events for this community of 10,000.

"I have shot five people," replied a voice on the other end of the telephone that was believed to be that of 21-year-old Zephen Xaver, a Florida state correctional officer trainee, who quit his job 14 days earlier and appears to have dropped out of an online college program only weeks before in December.

SEE ALSO: Florida Bank Shooting: 4 SunTrust Victims Named

"We hoped the victims were still alive," recalled Sebring Police Chief Karl Hoglund, a former U.S. Marine who served in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

The gunman stayed on the phone as help raced to the scene — 14 units from the Sebring Police Department alone — and many others from the Highlands Sheriff's Office.

But when they got to the bank, the doors were locked so police tried talking the gunman into giving himself up. At some point, it became clear that he wasn't going to open the door on his own.

Acting at the request of the Sebring chief, the Highlands County SWAT team crashed through the front entrance using an armored vehicle as a battering ram.

Despite their quick action and lessons from Parkland almost a year ago now, the officers wouldn't be able to save any of the women from the horror inside.

As the chief put it, choking back tears: "Our sisters. Our mothers. Our daughters and our coworkers."

Sadly, now, they will be known as victims.

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What the SWAT team found was hard to take: Five women face down in the bank lobby. They were both customers and employees of SunTrust.

All of the woman had been shot in the back of their heads and upper bodies, according to court documents. And the usually pristine bank floor was littered with spent 9 mm shell casings. The 5-foot-11 inch Xaver was in a back room with a bullet-proof vest and 9 mm handgun.

Families of the Sebring five were still processing what happened to their loved ones on Thursday. SunTrust called for a moment of silence on Friday at 12:36 p.m. to honor those killed in the tragedy.

"Loving her was easy. Living without her will be hard," acknowledged Tim Williams, whose sister-in-law, Ana Piñon-Williams, was taken from her seven children.

"Ana was a wife to my brother, a mother to seven children, a daughter, a sister and family to everyone she knew. Her life was truly a light in this world, she made it a better place," he told reporters. "We do not know what was going on in the mind of the individual who committed this atrocious act, but we do know he was influenced by the darkness in this world. We will not try to understand the darkness, but we will, with God’s help, overcome it."

The police chief earlier identified the first two victims as bank employee Marisol Lopez and customer Cynthia Watson.

The husband of a fourth victim also came forward, sharing with NBC News that his 31-year-old wife Jessica Montague was taken. Maine Montague said he and his wife have a 3-year-old child.

One remaining family has apparently asked police to withhold the names of their loved one under a recent Florida law passed after 17 students and faculty members were cut down by a gunman armed with an AR-15 assault rifle at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School last Valentine's Day.

"Ana was new to the SunTrust family, but she loved her work and her co-workers," said Williams. "We are determined to let Ana’s memory be marked by the life she lived, the people she loved, and the difference she made."

A candlelight vigil is planned for the families of SunTrust victims at 6 p.m. Sunday in Sebring. The vigil has been moved indoors ahead of possible inclement weather. The new location will be at the Highlands News-Sun Center, 781 Magnolia Ave.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Ana Piñon-Williams, a mother of seven children, was remembered by her family on Thursday after a gunman took her life one day earlier at a SunTrust Bank branch in Sebring, Florida. Photo courtesy Piñon-Williams family.