Desperate 911 calls for help have been released publicly for the first time after a cross-state murder spree spanning from Fort Lauderdale to Sarasota.
“911, what’s your emergency?” the operator asked. “I think my neighbor’s been shot,” the caller said.
“Tell me exactly what happened,” the 911 operator asked. “I don’t know, I heard a loud boom earlier, and I thought somebody dropped something, and I just walked outside, and my neighbor Tony is lying on the ground, and his house is open, and there’s blood all over his stomach,” the call said.
This call was going to 911 in Sarasota after a woman found her neighbor gunned down in his yard.
That neighbor started CPR while speaking to the 911 operator.
The man who was shot was Anatoly Ioff, known as a loving father, stepfather, and steady presence. Inside the home — two more family members and a friend, all dead — shot to death. In all, 5 members of the same family were killed.
In an online fundraising page, a friend wrote, ‘Our hearts are shattered as we try to process an unimaginable tragedy. In an act of devastating violence, five members of one family were taken from this world…’
Turning to South Florida, where family and friends stopped by the crime scene as special crews cleaned up the place where Larisa Blyudaya and her 18-year-old son Ben Azizov were murdered in Fort Lauderdale. Workers removed a mattress with sections cut out of it, presumably by detectives, as evidence.
Larisa and Ben were found dead in a third-floor condo in upscale Victoria Park on Tuesday afternoon. A family friend writes on an online fundraising page, “These were beautiful, real people who were loved fiercely. They deserved long lives with everyone who loved them so dearly.” Larisa is remembered as a deeply loving mother, while Ben is called a joyful son and grandson.
Police identified the suspect as Russell Kot. Deputies in Sarasota tell us he and Larisa had a past romantic relationship. He was also found dead in Sarasota, possibly from a self-inflicted wound, according to investigators.
We spoke to a man who rented him a condo for the last two weeks. He told us he was living in north-east Fort Lauderdale.
