'He has a gun:' Mother of 4 children killed feared leaving them with boyfriend
06/21/2018 9:51 am PDT
By Emilee Speck, WKMG
ORLANDO -- (WKMG) -- The mother of four children killed by her boyfriend called 911 from a 7-Eleven after fleeing her Orlando apartment, according to the June 10 call released Thursday by Orlando police.
Ciara Lopez told Orlando police dispatch during the 11:43 p.m. 911 call that her boyfriend, Gary Lindsey Jr., hurt her and took her phone.
"He hurt me and he has my phone and he has a gun, and there's four children in the house," Lopez said, her voice shaking.
The dispatcher asked Lopez if Lindsey had ever pulled the gun on her. "Not today," she replied.
Lopez said her four children were locked in their rooms at the home at Westbrook Apartments complex and she drove to the nearby 7-Eleven to get help.
"I have to go back to the apartment," she told dispatch several times.
Four minutes after that 911 call, Orlando police met Lopez at the complex's leasing office on Eaglesmere Drive, just off Kirkman Road, and attempted to get the children out. During that interaction with Lindsey, OPD Officer Kevin Valencia was shot in the head and critically injured, police said. He remains in critical condition almost two weeks later.
Waiting for your permission to load Soundcloud audio.
Almost 24 hours after police arrived at the apartment and exchanged fire with Lindsey, Irayan Pluth, 12; Lillia Pluth, 10; Aidan Lindsey, 6; and Dove Lindsey, 1, were found shot to death in their beds, police said.
Orlando Police Chief John Mina said Lindsey shot and killed the children, two of whom were his own, before taking his own life.
"I don't want to leave them alone there for too long, because he might do something," Lopez told dispatch.
At 4:35 a.m., Lindsey's sister from Jacksonville called Orlando police unsure if her brother was the barricaded suspect, but saw the news and said she put two and two together after she received a call from Lindsey's friend at 2:30 a.m. who informed her Lindsey was threatening to kill himself.
"He texted a friend before and said he was going to kill himself and said he was barricaded in an apartment and that he shot through the door at a cop and he didn't a know a cop was there anyway I don't know if he knew - all I know is that how many of these can be going on right now," she said.
Lindsey's sister told dispatch, still unsure if her brother was the suspect, that she wanted to help if she could.
"I didn't know exactly where it was. No one really did. I'm just calling because I saw this on the news and I was wondering if there was anything my mother and I could help," she said.
FULL STORY: 'He has a gun:' Mother of 4 children killed feared leaving them with boyfriend - WKMG