Multiple people in Sarasota and Fort Lauderdale are dead in what police say is a cross state murder spree by the same suspect Wednesday morning.
Police say the murder spree began in upscale Victoria Park in Fort Lauderdale and ended in a gated community in Sarasota. Seven total people were found dead in both crime scenes.
Fort Lauderdale police received a call for a well-being check in the 500 block of Northeast 15th Avenue. That is where they found two adults, identified as Laris Blyudaya, 46, and Ben Azivov, 18, dead in the home.
A neighbor told CBS News Miami that he saw someone go into the residence early in the morning.
“Yesterday morning, I was loading my tools, and I saw a guy running around here. He went to the driveway, hit the keypad, the door went up, I didn’t think anything of it,” said Mark Scinna, “Then I got a call about what had happened. I started tying everything together and said ‘Man, I hope that wasn’t the guy I saw.”
In Sarasota, police found more bodies, including who they suspect is the gunman
Across the state, Sarasota police were called after they say a man was shot at the front door of a home in the gated community in the Ambrelea neighborhood near Proctor and McIntosh Roads. There, the bodies of five victims were found, including the suspect, identified as Russell Kot, 51. Police believe Kot died from self inflicted gunshot wounds.
The other four victims were identified as:
Olga Greinert, 49 Florita Stolyar, 66Anatoly Ioffe, 61Yaroslav Blyudoy, 39
“It is currently a shooting investigation. We have multiple persons involved. It appears all persons are accounted for, therefore being an isolated incident withe no threat to the public,” said Matt Binkley from the Sarasota Sheriff’s Office.
As for motive in the Fort Lauderdale part of this mass killing — investigators say the gunman had a romantic relationship with one of the victims. The connection between the other victims in Sarasota is still unknown.