Florida girl, 11, with bone cancer shot dead by dad in murder-suicide weeks before her leg was to be amputated
DAVIE, FLORIDA: A Florida man shot dead his terminally ill 11-year-old daughter before turning the gun on himself in a disturbing murder-suicide in West Davie, Florida, on Monday, August 10. The incident unfolded at around 9 am as the man's wife was at the home on Southwest 18th Court preparing breakfast, according to Local10 News. While she was in the kitchen, she heard multiple shots and rushed out to see what was happening. She found her husband and daughter lying on the ground with gunshot wounds.
"I heard the mother come right through my yard ... She screamed," shared Charleen Wells, the family's neighbor.
The young girl was pronounced dead at the scene while the father, who is in his 40s, was transported to the nearby Broward County Medical Center. However, medical professionals could not save him and he was declared dead the same day.
Davie Police spokesman Lt Mark Leone confirmed the shocking incident and revealed it was being investigated as a murder-suicide. He said investigators suspect that the 11-year-old's illness may have been the motive behind the shootings.
"While we were speaking to the mother, we were told that the child has a debilitating, terminal illness, which is a possibility for why this tragic incident occurred," he said, before adding, "It was a devastating terminal illness. She was not going to get any better. ... It is such a tragic situation, a terrible situation."
While both the victims initially remained unidentified as the authorities notified family members, relatives later revealed the girl was Angela, who was an only child, and the man was Kevin Ng. They also seemingly confirmed the murder-suicide had taken place because Ng was distraught over his daughter's health. They said she had been diagnosed with cancer in her femur and was undergoing aggressive treatment, which included an upcoming leg amputation.
According to the South-Florida Sun-Sentinel, she was scheduled for amputation on August 28, a day that otherwise would have celebrated as her parents' 27th wedding anniversary. Miriam Casanova, whose husband is the cousin of the young girl's mother, told the outlet they had tried to keep in touch with the Ngs and that the last phone call they had with the family was "difficult and sad." During the phone call, she said Ng could barely speak through the tears. "He couldn’t talk," she said. "He just cried."
Scott Eliason, a psychologist at the Idaho Department of Corrections, said this incident was one of those that almost nobody could have seen coming. "It’s almost like a lightning strike," he said. "Usually these things are impossible to predict and even if someone has every possible risk factor you can think of for violence or suicide, in the vast majority of cases, they don’t do this. [But] Sometimes you get what’s called caregiver burnout where you have a caregiver taking care of a terminally ill person and that stress leads to some kind of depression. They’re worried about abandoning the person, so that’s where the murder comes in."