Domenico Gigante, Canaveral Groves, Florida man murders four, including own teen daughter at residence. History of violent behavior.
A Florida man is accused of fatally shooting his own teenage daughter, her mother and two others before a surviving child inside a Cocoa home called for help Wednesday morning, according to authorities.
Deputies rushed to the crime scene in Canaveral Groves after one of two unharmed children called a relative for help, Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey said during a news conference.
Deputies found the bodies of 15-year-old Kiarra Terwilliger and her mother Constance Terwilliger, 35, who used to be in a relationship with accused killer Domenico Gigante, around 2 a.m.
Other victims were identified as Glenda Terwilliger, 63, the slaughtered teen daughter’s grandmother and 36-year-old Michael Andrew Watson.
Gigante, 36, who was described as an ‘extremely violent individual,’ was charged with four counts of first-degree murder. He was arrested hours after the shooting and is being held without bail.
History of violent behavior
The surviving children were described as being 6 and 9 the sheriff said. One of the children contacted a relative, who then raced to the scene and called 911, according to Ivey.
A motive for the killings was not immediately known.
‘Folks, I’m gonna tell you this is an extremely violent individual with an extremely violent past,’ Ivey said of Gigante.
Gigante was previously arrested for domestic violence and battery in 2005, multiple counts of cruelty to animals in 2008 and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and aggravated assault in 2012.
Ivey said Gigante once killed a dog by breaking his head on the table and snapping his neck along with stabbing another dog.
‘That’s the level of violence this individual possesses,’ he said.
‘My thoughts and prayers are with this family,’ Ivey continued. ‘And we as a community mourn their loss.’
The four deaths were the deadliest single homicide case in Brevard since May 2012, when a Port. St. John mother shot and killed her four children and then killed herself.
