POMPANO BEACH, FLA. (WSVN) - An 80-year-old man opened fire inside a Pompano Beach home, killing his wife and son before he turned the gun on himself, authorities said, leaving an entire community in shock.
BSO deputies responded to a residence along the 300 block of South Golf Boulevard to do a welfare check, at around 7:15 p.m. on Wednesday.
“I just got a message that there were cops in the area,” said a young woman who lives in the neighborhood.
Detectives said deputies noticed two vehicles parked in the driveway and mail spilling out of the mailbox.
“With the white car, an older gentleman and his wife, I assume. She was older, white hair, heavy-set, the young man with the blue car,” said a neighbor who identified himself as James.
When no one aswered the front door, deputies requested assistance from Pompano Beach Fire Rescue to gain entry. Once inside, emergency crews found a woman and two men with apparent gunshot wounds. All three were pronounced dead at the scene.
Investigators identified one of the deceased as 80-year-old James Sheridan, the suspected shooter.
“We went to bed really late last night watching all the crime people come in and out, the detectives and the sheriff,” said an older woman who lives in the neighborhood.
Thursday night, 7News spoke with Anita Horten, who said she has known the Sheridan family for more than 30 years.
“It’s shocking. I don’t understand it. I hope we can make sense of it,” she said.
7News cameras captured Horten as she left flowers on the front lawn of the Sheridans’ home.
Broward County Sheriff Gregory Tony on Thursday confirmed Sheridan fatally shot his wife and son before he killed himself.
“That’s what they’re saying now, and it doesn’t make sense to me. I don’t understand why,” said Horten.
“It’s a terrible feeling, like it’s not real,” said the older woman who lives in the neighborhood.
Neighbors said the family had been renting their home for about a year.
“I was being nosy at first, but then, when I heard more about it, like, I realized that I knew them,” said the young woman who lives in the neighborhood.
“[James Sheridan] was very friendly, and [there was] no indication whatsoever that he would be capable of something like that at all, so it’s just a shock,” said neighbor Michael Higgins.
The older woman who lives in the neighborhood said the family kept to themselves.
“They didn’t walk around the neighborhood, they weren’t sociable to people, so you don’t really know,” she said.
“Who knows what happened in there but, you know, obviously he needed help, and no one really knew that he needed some sort of help,” said Higgins, “so, you never know what’s going on in someone’s head, what’s going on in their life.”
Neighbors said they hadn’t seen the family for about a week, and now area residents and friends want to know what led up to the double murder-suicide.
“I just want people to know that [Mrs. Sheridan] was one of the most amazing people,” said Horten. “She had the biggest heart, and we are going to miss her.”
Horten said she wants to remember the family she knew, not what deputies said happened inside the home on Wednesday.
“I want them to be remembered as wonderful, kind, Christian people,” she said.
BSO’s Homicide Unit continues to investigate the circumstances surrounding these deaths.
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