NASSAU COUNTY, Fla. — Three women are dead and a man is in the hospital after being shot at a home in Hilliard on Thursday night.
The shooting, witnessed by a 5-year-old girl, occurred at a home on West 12th Avenue at about 8 p.m., a distraught Sheriff Bill Leeper said at a news conference Friday morning.
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“It’s sad. It’s tragic. It’s heartbreaking,” Leeper said before giving details about what happened in the house.
Deputies arrived at the home and tried to make contact with the occupants. When they could not, they entered the home through the front door and found an adult woman lying in a pool of blood in the living room, Leeper said.
A man, identified as Christopher Rowell, was also found on the floor in the living room in a pool of blood with a rifle near him, the sheriff said.
Another woman was found shot in the dining room, and a third in the bathroom, Leeper said. All three women were pronounced dead at the scene, but Rowell still had a pulse, Leeper said.
He was flown by helicopter to a Jacksonville hospital. Leeper described his condition as clinically dead as medical professionals kept him alive so his organs could be used.
Leeper said the man shot the three women and turned the gun on himself. His name is Christopher Rowell.
Leeper said they are all somehow related.
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Victims identified
Late Friday evening, the Nassau County Sheriff’s Office identified the women killed:
- Marissa Leara Rowell, 32
- Sandra Gayle Fogarty, 71
- and Alisha Lael Fogarty, 33
Shooting witnessed by child
911 was called after a 5-year-old girl went to a neighbor’s home and told them that Rowell was shooting people, the sheriff said. The child saw the first woman get shot in the living room and one of the other victims brought the girl into the bathroom.
Rowell then shot that woman in the bathroom in front of the child, who ran from the home covered in blood to the neighbors, who called authorities, Leeper said. Rowell then shot the third victim and himself.
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