PINECREST, FLA. (WSVN) - A South Florida man in facing some serious charges after, police said, he terrorized his ex-girlfriend’s current boyfriend and the boyfriend’s mother and sister by vandalizing their cars and threatening to rape them on social media.
Thirty-two-year-old Leonardo Abad appeared in bond court Monday morning. He is facing several changes, including aggravated assault with a firearm and writing threats to kill or do bodily harm.
Police arrested the suspect in Miami Shores on Saturday after police were called to the scene of a disturbance.
Pilar Franco, the mother of the current boyfriend of Abad’s ex-girlfriend, said the suspect targeted her family. She asked not to show her face on camera because she’s afraid for her safety.
“I’m so scared, and I feel, I don’t know, I’m scared to live here in my house,” she said, “so, to see if you guys can help me with this person.”
Franco’s right leg never stop trembling while speaking with 7News.
Officials said Abad had been on their radar after his ex-girlfriend let them know he had been lashing out against her.
Franco said Abad went after her son first.
On June 27, investigators said, Abad showed up to the house of his ex-girlfriend’s current boyfriend, located in the area of Northeast 168th Street and 17th Avenue in North Miami Beach.
He is said to have pointed a gun at the head of the victim’s boyfriend before shattering a rear window of his vehicle with a rock. He then allegedly fled the scene and fired shots into the air.
Detectives said Abad had texted his ex-girlfriend on June 26. According to his arrest report, Abad wrote “that he was going to hurt the victim, make her miserable, and that he was going to hurt himself.”
According to officials, the following day, at around 4:45 a.m., Abad went to Franco’s house, located in the area of Southwest 83rd Avenue and 134th Street in Pinecrest.
Police said Abad vandalized two vehicles parked in the driveway of the house.
“He broke the window of the car, he cut the tires, the brake of my car,” said Franco.
Surveillance cameras captured the suspect using what appears to be a hand drill to slash the cars’ tires.
Franco said the suspect later returned to her home and spray-painted the vehicles.
“Then, at 3:30, he’s coming back, and he do the graffiti of the cars,” she said.
Investigators said the suspect posted violent messages against the victims on social media. In the posts, Abad allegedly said that this was just a glimpse of what was to come and that he was going to return to the house and rape Franco and her daughter.
“He wrote a lot of things in the social media that he’s gonna come to do something to my daughter and me. He said that he was gonna rape us,” said Franco.
He also posted videos with a gun on his Facebook account.
“I saw in the social media that he has a gun, and I’m really scared because this is a dangerous person,” said Franco.
On Saturday, when police responded to the disturbance call in Miami Shores, they ran a records check on Abad and found a warrant for his arrest and took him into custody.
Abad received a $37,000 bond. He was also ordered to house arrest and stay away orders from the victims.
Abad told detectives his Facebook account had been hacked and that he doesn’t even know where Pinecrest is located.
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