Four killed in Florida home. Two children survived by hiding under blanket, cops say

Four bodies, including a 4-year-old girl, were discovered inside a home east of Orlando, Florida, after a wounded woman showed up on the doorstep of a neighbor, according to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office.

In all, six people were shot around 4 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 4, including a 23-year-old man who turned the gun on himself after shooting five members of the same family, Sheriff John Mina said in a news conference.

The dead were shot in the head while at a home on Myers Drive in the Orlando suburb of Union Park, according to a news release.

The suspected shooter, Shavell Jordan Jones, remained hospitalized Friday with a gunshot wound to the head, officials said.

Among the survivors are the 20-year-old woman who went for help and two children — ages 4 and 6 — who hid during the shooting spree, Mina said.

The 4-year-old is the twin sister of the girl who was killed, he said.

Identities of the victims have not been released, but all are members of the same family and live in the home.

The dead include the 49-old family matriarch; two of her daughters (ages 28 and 29), and her 4-year-old granddaughter, officials said.

Mina called the incident “horrific.”

“One of the women who was killed was in a relationship with Jones,” Mina said. “Overnight, they got into an argument. At some point, Jones began to remove his belongings from the home, and re-entered the home and began shooting.”

The 29-year-old victim was identified as Jones’ girlfriend, Mina said.

“Two other children were found in the home. They had hid under their blankets when the shooting started and thankfully we found them unharmed,” he said.

Jones has no criminal history, other than a failure to appear in court on a misdemeanor charge, and detectives have not found evidence of involvement in any prior domestic violence incidents, Mina said.

The family, which has lived in the area about a year, also had no record of prior calls to police about domestic incidents, he said.

This story was originally published November 4, 2022 at 2:12 PM with the headline "Four killed in Florida home. Two children survived by hiding under blanket, cops say."