HIALEAH, FLA. (WSVN) - Students expressed their heartbreak with letters and a touching tribute for two young lives lost at the hands of their father.
Flowers and posters hung on the volleyball court fences of City of Hialeah Educational Academy, where students who knew 12-year-old Valeria and 9-year-old Matias Tovar could honor them.
Grief counselors were at the school a day after police said the two young children were shot and killed by their father, Humberto Tovar, in a murder-suicide.
Detectives said the father posted a picture on social media of himself and his kids right before the incident.
7News captured the swarm of police officers at the residential community of the 6400 Block of Miami Lakes Drive where it happened.
Miami-Dade Police and Fire Rescue responded to the scene by the lake just behind the community.
Authorities told 7News the children’s mother and father were divorced and that he was supposed to pick up the children earlier that day.
When the mother didn’t hear from them, she ultimately tracked them down and made the heartbreaking discovery.
Nearby, Magda Pena and her son could be seen on Ring video running out of their home to help.
“I heard the lady screaming,” said Pena.
She tried to help the mother perform CPR.
“She had pulled the little girl’s body over towards her, like towards the boy, and she was trying to do both at the same time,” Pena said. “She was like, ‘Please, don’t stop. They’re alive. They’re alive,’ but they were already all dead.”
Now the community is honoring the young lives lost too soon.
It remains unknown if there were any domestic calls involving the family before the shooting.
The case remains under investigation.
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