Neighbors in a Pembroke Park apartment building are shocked and saddened after a woman and three children were shot and killed Wednesday night.
“I was sleeping. I heard a couple of gunshots, like six in a row, and then four more,” said Conrado Loaldi.
Broward County Regional Communications received a call about the shooting at the Sundrift Apartments complex on West Hallandale Beach Boulevard shortly after 7:30 p.m.
When Pembroke Park police officers arrived, they found the bodies of a woman and three children in a fourth-floor unit. They have been identified as 32-year-old Julie Cruz, 2-year-olds Nova and Emory McKenzie and 11-year-old Xion Solomon.
They also found a man, identified as 34-year-old Stephen Mckenzie, and an 8-year-old girl, identified as Phinyx Solomon, suffering from gunshot wounds.
“I heard a boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom then I heard someone cry out,” said Beverly who lives two doors down from unit 408 where the shooting took place. She did not wish to have her last name used in this report.
Sheriff’s investigators said McKenzie shot Cruz and all four children, two of which are his, and then turned the gun on himself.
McKenzie was taken to HCA Florida Aventura Hospital in critical condition, according to the Broward Sheriff’s Office. Solomon was taken to Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital in serious condition.
Neighbor recalls seeing the couple, children around the complex
Beverly said the couple and the children were quiet.
“I would see Julie and the children, mostly the father would take them to school in the mornings. They would wake me up, they were my alarm clock, 7:15 a.m., like clockwork. They would be at the elevator, going to school, taking them to school. They were so quiet, so quiet people, you would never know,” she said.
Neighbors said it’s hard to believe something like this happened.
“You have to be crazy, you have to be insane to do that. You got to be insane if you wanted to do something to yourself and that’s it, but don’t hurt anybody else, kids, wife,” said Loaldi.
At one point after the shooting, a woman who neighbors identified as Cruz’s mother ran toward the apartment complex screaming “That’s my daughter.” A Broward Sheriff’s deputy stopped her before she could reach the building and held her as she cried in his arms
Beverly said she wished she had spoken to Cruz more.
“If you’re having a problem, please reach out, speak to somebody, especially if you’re a female. Please speak to somebody, speak to your neighbors. It’s okay to be polite and say good morning. Say a few words so we can get to know you because I sensed something was not right,” she said.
