2013 Hialeah shooting
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On July 26, 2013, a
mass shooting There is a lack of consensus on how to define a mass shooting. Most terms define a minimum of three or four victims of gun violence (not including the shooter or in an inner city) in a short period of time, although an Australian study from 200 ...
occurred at the Todel Apartments, an American apartment complex in
Hialeah Hialeah ( ; ) is a city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. With a population of 223,109 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, Hialeah is the sixth-largest city in Florida. It is the second largest city by population in the Mi ...
, a city in
Miami-Dade County Miami-Dade County is a county located in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Florida. The county had a population of 2,701,767 as of the 2020 census, making it the most populous county in Florida and the seventh-most populous county in ...
, Florida, United States. Seven people, including the shooter, were killed in the incident. The shooter was identified by police as 42-year-old Pedro Alberto Vargas, a resident of Hialeah, who, after setting his apartment ablaze, opened fire from his balcony and inside the apartment, then held two people hostage before being fatally shot by a
SWAT In the United States, a SWAT team (special weapons and tactics, originally special weapons assault team) is a police tactical unit that uses specialized or military equipment and tactics. Although they were first created in the 1960s to ...
team in the early hours of July 27.


Events


Prior to the shooting

At 1:37 p.m., hours before the shooting started, Vargas called
9-1-1 , usually written 911, is an emergency telephone number for the United States, Canada, Mexico, Panama, Palau, Argentina, Philippines, Jordan, as well as the North American Numbering Plan (NANP), one of eight N11 codes. Like other emergency nu ...
and reported he was being followed, asking the dispatcher to run the license plate of a vehicle parked outside his apartment. He also claimed he was being threatened by people using witchcraft on him. His mother, 83-year-old Esperanza Patterson, then took the phone and told the dispatcher about her son's strange behavior. The dispatcher informed Patterson that police units have been sent to her residence, but Patterson advised against it, and later informed the dispatcher that Vargas had left, having gone to the office of a lawyer he hired for a recent legal matter.


Shooting

According to officials, Vargas poured combustible liquid on $10,000 in cash and set it on fire in his apartment unit at around 6:30 p.m. The Todel Apartments' manager, 79-year-old Italo Pisciotti, and his 69-year-old wife Samira noticed the smoke and ran to the apartment. Vargas stepped into the hallway and opened fire with a
Glock 17 Glock is a brand of polymer-Receiver (firearms), framed, Recoil operation#Short recoil operation, short recoil-operated, locked-breech semi-automatic pistols designed and produced by Austrian manufacturer Glock Ges.m.b.H., Glock Ges.m.b.H. The ...
9mm
semiautomatic pistol A semi-automatic pistol is a type of repeating single-chamber handgun (pistol) that automatically cycles its action to insert the subsequent cartridge into the chamber (self-loading), but requires manual actuation of the trigger to actually ...
, killing both. He proceeded to go to his balcony on the fourth floor of the building and fired 10 to 20 bullets into the street, fatally hitting 33-year-old Carlos Gavilanes as he got out of his car. Vargas then kicked open the door of apartment 304, where he shot and killed the residents, 64-year-old Patricio Simono, his 51-year-old wife Merly Niebels, and their 17-year-old daughter Priscilla Perez. Police officers responded to the scene and exchanged gunfire with Vargas throughout the complex's stairwells for about five hours. Vargas then entered apartment 525, where he took the residents, Zoeb and Farida Nek, hostage for about three hours. During the standoff, he continued firing shots at officers outside. After negotiations reportedly broke down, authorities decided to send in a six-officer
SWAT In the United States, a SWAT team (special weapons and tactics, originally special weapons assault team) is a police tactical unit that uses specialized or military equipment and tactics. Although they were first created in the 1960s to ...
team to rescue the hostages. The team entered the building and found the two hostages praying in the living room, while Vargas was pacing around out of their view. Officers outside distracted Vargas with a
stun grenade A stun grenade, also known as a flash grenade, flashbang, thunderflash, or sound bomb, is a Non-lethal weapon, less-lethal explosive device used to temporarily disorient an enemy's senses. Upon detonation, they produce a blinding flash of light a ...
, allowing the SWAT team to rescue the hostages and open fire on Vargas, who they gunned down after a brief shootout. Both hostages escaped unharmed. Two fully loaded magazines were found at the scene. The event was the deadliest mass shooting in Hialeah's history, as well as the deadliest in the entire Miami area in three decades.


Victims

*Italo Pisciotti, 79 (building manager, killed in a hallway) *Samira Pisciotti, 69 (wife of Italo Pisciotti, killed in a hallway) *Carlos Javier Gavilanes, 33 (killed on the street) *Patricio Simono, 64 (killed in apartment 304) *Merly S. Niebles, 51 (wife of Patricio Simono, killed in apartment 304) *Priscilla Perez, 17 (daughter of Merly Niebles and stepdaughter of Patricio Simon, killed in apartment 304)


Perpetrator

Pedro Alberto Vargas (October 3, 1970 – July 27, 2013), a
Cuban Cuban may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Cuba, a country in the Caribbean * Cubans, people from Cuba, or of Cuban descent ** Cuban exile, a person who left Cuba for political reasons, or a descendant thereof * Cuban citizen, a perso ...
native, was identified as the shooter. He was born in
Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.
to teacher parents. His father died in 1991 or 1992. Vargas studied at the University of Pedagogical Sciences between 1990 and 1994, graduating with a
bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...
in technical education. He and his mother, Esperanza Patterson, immigrated to the U.S. in the mid-1990s after winning U.S. visa lotteries, and Vargas was
naturalized Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the in ...
in 2004. According to records, he resided in apartment 408 with Patterson since 1999 and had committed no serious criminal offenses. He took classes at
Miami Dade College Miami Dade College (Miami Dade, MDC or Dade) is a public college in Miami, Florida. Founded in 1959, it has a total of eight campuses and twenty-one outreach centers throughout Miami-Dade County. It is the largest college in the Florida College ...
, graduating in 2004 with an
associate degree An associate degree is an undergraduate degree awarded after a course of post-secondary study lasting two to three years. It is a level of qualification above a high school diploma, GED, or matriculation, and below a bachelor's degree. The fi ...
in graphic design. Neighbors described Vargas as a quiet man who commonly got into arguments with his mother in their apartment. According to several
LA Fitness LA Fitness (doing business as LA Fitness International LLC) is an American gym chain with more than 700 clubs across the United States and Canada. The company was formed in 1984 and is based in Irvine, California. History LA Fitness was founde ...
customers, Vargas frequented the local gym and often lifted weights as a way to channel out pent-up anger. He also used
steroid A steroid is a biologically active organic compound with four rings arranged in a specific molecular configuration. Steroids have two principal biological functions: as important components of cell membranes that alter membrane fluidity; and a ...
s and expressed frustration at bad experiences with women. The
Glock Glock is a brand of polymer- framed, short recoil-operated, locked-breech semi-automatic pistols designed and produced by Austrian manufacturer Glock Ges.m.b.H. The firearm entered Austrian military and police service by 1982 after it was th ...
9mm pistol used in the shooting was legally purchased by Vargas in October 2010 from Florida Gun Center, a local gun shop, and he had a
concealed carry Concealed carry, or carrying a concealed weapon (CCW), is the practice of carrying a weapon (usually a sidearm such as a handgun), either in proximity to or on one's person or in public places in a manner that hides or conceals the weapon's pre ...
permit for it.


Professional problems

He worked at the media services department at Miami Dade College's North Campus starting in 2004, and although his initial performance evaluations judged him positively, they began noting a lack of social skills. Vargas was eventually forced to resign in 2008 after the school found he downloaded inappropriate files, including a computer hacking tutorial from ''
The Anarchist Cookbook ''The Anarchist Cookbook'', first published in 1971, is a book containing instructions for the manufacture of explosives, rudimentary telecommunications phreaking devices, and related weapons, as well as instructions for the home manufacture o ...
''. Several months afterward, Miami Dade College received anonymous online threats that were traced to a public library in Hialeah, though Vargas was suspected of being the sender. Vargas later found employment at a Miami company as a graphic designer, but was fired after three months. Like Miami Dade College, the company later received anonymous threats and Vargas was suspected, but not confirmed as the sender. Prior to the shooting, Vargas had been working as a graphic design artist for Bullet Line, a promotional company, from May to October 2012. Recently, he had been seeing an attorney, Angel Castillo, Jr., regarding "abusive emails and text messages" that were being sent to Bullet Line, starting a week after Vargas's dismissal. He initially denied sending the messages but later admitted to being the sender after being informed by the lawyer that he was possibly committing perjury. On the day of the shooting, after making the 9-1-1 call, Vargas had gone to Castillo's office and demanded to see him, only to learn he was not there at the time. According to a relative of his mother, Vargas feared losing his money due to the case.


Reaction

Following the incident, Mayor Carlos Hernández responded, "I'm torn apart. We've never had something so complex as we had last night.... It's an extremely sad day in Hialeah." In the wake of the shooting, some citizens of Hialeah took to
Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
to express their concerns about safety in the city. On July 28, 2013, Sandy Hook Promise, a
nonprofit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...
that was formed in the wake of the
Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting occurred on December 14, 2012, in Newtown, Connecticut, United States, when 20-year-old Adam Lanza shot and killed 26 people. Twenty of the victims were children between six and seven years old, and t ...
, issued a statement about the shooting, saying, "Our hearts are broken. Our spirit is not. Sending prayers and condolences to the victims and families of the Hialeah, Florida mass shooting."


See also

*
List of rampage killers in the United States This section of the list of rampage killers contains those cases that occurred in the United States. This section does not include school massacres; workplace killings; religious, political or racial crimes; or mass murders that took place p ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hialeah shooting, 2013 2010s crimes in Florida 2013 in Florida 2013 mass shootings in the United States 2013 murders in the United States Attacks in the United States in 2013 Attacks on buildings and structures in Florida Arson in Florida Deaths by firearm in Florida Family murders History of Hialeah, Florida Hostage taking in the United States July 2013 crimes in the United States Mass murder in 2013 Mass shootings in Florida Mass shootings in the United States Mass shootings involving Glock pistols Massacres in the United States Murder in Florida