MIAMI – Police have released the names of four people who were fatally shot at a birthday party in a Cuban neighborhood of Miami and the identity of the gunman, who later killed himself.
Miami police say 19-year-old Nayla Canfux, 27-year-old Francisco Casas, 50-year-old Lazara Mendez and 77-year-old Maria Lefran Christ were killed when 48-year-old Guillermo Lopez opened fire early Sunday morning.
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Homicide detective Ervens Ford said witnesses described a chaotic scene that started when Lopez showed up uninvited at the party and told about a dozen people there that he blamed them for his estranged wife, Mendez, leaving him.
Officers got a call shortly after midnight Sunday that numerous shots had been fired and a red pickup truck had been spotted leaving the scene.
Juan Sosa, who lives a block away, was out walking his dog early Sunday when he heard two shots and saw people running toward him, screaming. Then he heard as many as two dozen more shots and ducked behind a large tree to call police.
"I didn't want to get hit," Sosa said.
Soon after, someone called 911 to say a building about three miles away was on fire and more shots had been fired. That's where officials found the alleged gunman dead. Ford said he set fire to both his truck and the building he lived in before shooting himself.
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