Florida Apartment Shootings: Suspect called 911 before deadly rampage to report someone "casting spells," report says

Police say Pedro Vargas was shot and killed after going on a deadly shooting spree in his Florida apartment complex.

/ CBS Miami

(CBS/AP) HIALEAH, Fla. -- Pedro Vargas, the man who police say killed six in a deadly shootout at a Hialeah, Fla. apartment complex, called 911 hours before the July 26 rampage and said he was being followed by someone who was casting spells on him, reports CBS Miami.

Vargas' mother Esperanza Patterson, 83, told operators her son was nervous and suffered from problems, the Herald reports. She reportedly told dispatchers that officers didn't need to respond to the apartment because she had already slipped two Xanax pills into his food.

Police said that later that evening, Vargas set a combustible liquid on fire in his apartment, sending the unit into flames, police said. Vargas shot building manager Italo Pisciotti and his wife went as they running toward the smoke, according to police.

Vargas then went back into his apartment and began firing from his balcony. One of the shots struck and killed 33-year-old Carlos Javier Gavilanes. He then stormed into a third-story apartment, police said, where he shot and killed a family of three: Patricio Simono, 64, Merly Niebles, 51, and her 17-year-old daughter.

Police exchanged gunfire with Vargas for eight hours in the complex, with Vargas taking two hostages in an apartment in the shootout's final hours. The rampage ended when a SWAT team rescued the hostages and shot and killed Vargas.

After he called 911 but before the rampage began,?El Neuvo Herald?reports that Vargas went the Kendall law office of attorney Angel Castillo Jr., who three days earlier had gotten Vargas to apologize for threatening former co-workers.

Vargas worked at a company in Miami as a temporary graphic designer, Castillo told the paper, but admitted to sending malicious emails to the company's employees after he was let go in October. Castillo took Vargas' deposition and asked Vargas to write a letter of apology, which he did, reports the paper.

Castillo wasn't at the office when Vargas arrived, the paper reports.

"We believe that if the lawyer had been in his office that afternoon, Vargas might have killed him," Hialeah Police Chief Sergio Vel?zquez told the paper. "We suspect that case motivated all that violence. That would have been what made him unstable."

Vargas reportedly told his mother he was concerned his legal problems were going to cost him money, but Castillo said in a statement to the Neuvo Herald that the company decided not to pursue further action against Vargas after he apologized for the threatening emails.

Source: http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~r/cbsnews/feed/~3/vOyouLm6ejg/

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