Florida Dad, Terminally Ill Child, Die In Double Shooting

DAVIE, FL — A Florida dad and his terminally ill daughter died of gunshot wounds Monday in a double shooting that may have stemmed from the child's illness.

"It turns out that what we have is an 11-year-old child who is deceased, and a man in his 40s, who is the child’s father, who is also deceased," Lt. Mark Leone of the Davie Police Department told reporters Monday outside the single family home where the shootings took place between Miami and Fort Lauderdale.

Leone said the child was declared dead at the scene while the father died later.

"We are investigating this as the father killed the daughter and then himself by means of shooting," Leone said.

He said the incident happened shortly before 9 a.m. Monday.

"While we were speaking to the mother, we were told that the child has a debilitating terminal illness, which is a possibility of why this incident — this tragic incident — occurred," Leone said.

Police did not identify the father or his daughter.

"When police arrived on scene they spoke with the resident, the female, who had heard gunshots inside the residence while she was preparing breakfast," Leone said.

In an unrelated case, a mother in nearby Miami-Dade County was accused in May of drowning her 9-year-old autistic boy, whose body was found floating in a southwest Miami-Dade golf course waterway, and touching off a Florida statewide amber alert by telling police her child was taken by two black men who demanded drugs from her.