A Florida woman and her boyfriend were arguing about house and car keys before he fatally shot her and wounded five others, including her two grade-school age sons, police said Monday.
Latina Herring and her boyfriend, Allen Cashe, were arguing at a gas station Monday morning about how they had taken each other's car and house keys, and the woman approached a police officer about it, said officials in Sanford, Florida.
The officer settled them down, but sometime later an officer was called to the home in the Orlando suburb, where the argument had flared again.
This time, the couple was arguing about who had the keys to her house. Police searched Cashe and found no keys or weapons, and the keys were found inside the house, Sanford Police Chief Cecil Smith said at a news conference.
Cashe packed up a few belongings and left the house, and Herring gave the officers a bag of Cashe's possessions that he refused to take with him, including a firearm. The officers left.
A short time later, police said, Cashe returned to the house, fatally shot Herring, and wounded her two sons and their grandfather. He then went to a nearby street and shot two innocent bystanders, including a high school student waiting for a bus.
A police officer who was in the neighborhood heard the shots, located Cashe and took him into custody, along with his weapon, an AK-47 rifle, police officials said.
Cashe faced charges of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree premeditated murder and attempted second-degree murder, Smith said at a news conference.
"This is one of the most horrific crime scenes our officers have had to encounter," said Officer Bianca Gillett, a police spokeswoman.
The boys, ages 7 and 8, and grandfather were in critical condition, and the bystanders were in stable condition, she said.
Smith defended the actions of his officers, saying Cashe had been searched and no weapons were found on him. He had committed no crime until the shootings, the chief said.
"It was a basic civil matter," Smith said. "There would be no reason for us to arrest this individual because no crime had taken place."
#Breaking Shooting incident involving multiple victims on Hays Dr. PIO enroute. Media staging on Hays Dr
— Sanford Police (@SanfordPolice) March 27, 2017
