A heavily armed gunman killed four people in a brutal attack in the US state of Florida. The gunman shot and killed a man and woman at a home near the town of Lakeland, as well as a baby the woman was holding, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said. An eleven-year-old girl was injured but survived. Another woman was killed in another house on the property.
The attacker admitted that the victims begged him to let them live and that he shot them anyway, the sheriff said. He also stated that he had taken crystal meth (methamphetamine). A connection between the perpetrator and the dead is not known.
“All we know is that we had a crazy man with a lot of guns shooting innocent people,” Judd said. He described the attacker as “evil to the core”. The family dog was also shot.
“He came for a firefight”
The perpetrator wore full combat gear including a bulletproof vest. Dozens, if not hundreds, of shots were fired during the exchange of fire with the police officers who rushed to the scene. “He came in for a firefight,” the sheriff said. “We do not know, why.” According to initial findings, it is a 33-year-old who was deployed to the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The attacker himself was injured in the firefight with the police. After he finally surrendered, he was taken to the hospital. There he tried to take the gun from a police officer, following which the 33-year-old was “sedated”, according to Judd.
wa / AR (dpa, ap)