SOUTHWEST MIAMI-DADE, Fla. (WSVN) — Funeral services continued for the victims of the Hialeah apartment massacre.
Italo and Samira Pisciotti, managers of the Todel apartment complex, were laid to rest side by side Thursday. Family and friends tried to hold back tears as they said their last good-byes. "We were like brothers," Francisco Hernandez, a family friend said through a translator.
Italo Pisciotti came to the U.S. with Hernandez from Barranquilla, Colombia, 47 years ago. "For 20 years they had been working there," Aleida Delgado, the apartment building owner said. "They were excellent people. He was very, very honest."
Merly Niebles and her 17-year-old daughter, Priscilla Perez, were also laid to rest Thursday, in front of nearly 100 friends and family members, many of them teenagers.
Thursday also brought controversy, as Hialeah Police took questions on how dispatch handled a 911 call made by Pedro Vargas just hours before his shooting rampage. "We cannot force a police upon a situation where they don't want them to come," Lieutenant Carl Zogby, of the Hialeah Police Department, said.
Vargas called police saying he was the victim of witchcraft. Vargas' mother then took the phone from him and began speaking with dispatch. "I want to get a psychiatrist to evaluate him," Vargas' mother said over the phone.
Vargas' mother then canceled the police unit that was on its way. "I wouldn't want that," Vargas' mother said to dispatch. "He's going to think I was becoming his enemy."
The Hialeah Police Department defended the actions made after the call to 911. "We believe that all the right questions were asked and answered to full satisfaction," Zogby said. "The 911 operator had no evidence at the time to believe, or any reason to believe, that anyone was in eminent danger."
Police are awaiting toxicology reports to see if Vargas was under the influence of drugs or alcohol when he made the call and went on the shooting rampage.
HELP FOR VICTIM'S FAMILIES
Mail checks payable to:
Survivors Pathway
City of Hialeah
PO BOX 138882
Hialeah, FL 33013
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