Police investigate possible murder-suicide

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. (WSVN) -- Police are investigating a possible murder-suicide that triggered an 8-hour SWAT stand-off at a South Florida apartment complex.

The shooting happened at about 7:30 p.m. Monday at the Park Layne Towers on the 400 block of Golden Isles Drive. Hallandale Beach Police arrived on scene to find a woman with a gunshot wound and a man barricaded inside. "She informed police at the time that she had been shot by her boyfriend," said Hallandale Beach Police Chief Dwayne Flournoy.

Feri Friedman watched from her balcony across from the building where the confrontation unfolded. "We were hiding behind the wall when they were shooting," she said.

She watched and video recorded as SWAT responded. She said she heard police tell residents to remain inside their homes. "They told everybody to stay indoors," she said.

Witnesses said they found the wounded woman on a staircase on the seventh floor. "I saw this lady, I didn't know who it was at first, lying on the floor and she wasn't responsive at all. I kept saying, 'Are you OK?' to see if she would respond, but she was unresponsive," said Bob Aaron of the Condominium Board of Directors.

Rescue crews transported the woman to an area hospital where doctors later pronounced her dead. "She was transported to Hollywood Memorial Regional Hospital, where she eventually died as a result of her injuries," said Flournoy.

Investigators said the man then barricaded himself in a unit on the top floor of the complex and refused to cooperate with police. The SWAT Team and negotiators later arrived on scene. SWAT would eventually fire tear gas into the unit to get the gunman to surrender. "Eventually, Hallandale Police SWAT Team made entry and discovered a white male deceased inside of Apartment 57," Flournoy said.

Neighbors were kept out of their homes for as much as eight hours throughout the standoff and then while police conducted their investigation.

Victoria Cooney is shocked that something like this happened. She said she knew the couple. "It's scary, they looked like a nice couple of a neighbors, and suddenly they have an episode like this," she said.

Aaron said he also knew the couple had problems but did not know it would escalate this far. "They had a relationship that turned violent on occasion and there were domestic charges back and forth over the last couple of months, I believe, and this is just another one that went too far," said Aaron.

Police have not released the identities of the victims involved but said the man was in his mid 50s, and the woman was in her late 40s.

(Copyright 2012 by Sunbeam Television Corp. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)