In yet another US shootout, seven people, including a gunman, were killed in a hostage drama lasting nearly eight hours at a South Florida apartment complex.
The gunman was killed by a SWAT team that stormed the building in Hialeah on the outskirts of Miami, ending the drama in the early hours of Saturday. The standoff had begun around 6.30 pm Friday, when an elderly couple managing the building went to speak to a fourth-floor tenant who lived with his mother regarding a complaint that he had filed.
The tenant fired about 15 to 20 shots, killing the couple in the hallway, Miami Herald reported citing police and witnesses. The shooter, who was still to be identified, killed two other men and two other women by the time the SWAT team took charge in the wee hours of Saturday. While one male and two females were reported killed in another apartment on a different floor, the sixth victim was said to be a man walking into an apartment across the street.
The shooter moved from floor to floor and then holed himself up in a fifth-floor unit with two hostages, who were later rescued, said police who began negotiations. When the talks broke down around 2 am, SWAT stormed the complex and shot dead the gunman. At the time he was shot dead, the gunman had threatened to kill the hostages. “The suspect was holding at least two hostages at gunpoint,” police spokesman Carl Zogby said.