ORLANDO, Fla. – Orlando police responded to a domestic violence call just before midnight on June 10 that turned into a standoff with the suspect. Less than 24 hours later, an officer was critically wounded, four children were dead and the suspect had fatally shot himself.
Orlando police call logs and 911 audio shed light into what unfolded at the apartment near Universal Orlando before and during the standoff between Gary Lindsey Jr., a 35-year-old convicted felon, and Orange County authorities.
Below is a timeline of events.
June 10, 2018
11:43 p.m. Ciara Lopez calls 911 from a 7-Eleven after fleeing her Westbook apartment when she said her boyfriend, 35-year-old Gary Lindsey Jr. abused her and took her phone. Lopez tells Orlando police dispatch in the 911 call that Lindsey has a gun and she needs to get back to the apartment because her four children are still there.
"I don’t want to leave them alone there for too long because he might do something," Lopez said.
11:52 p.m. OPD Officer Kevin Valencia is the first officer to meet Lopez at the Westbrook Apartments leasing office.Officer Emanuel Gonzalez arrives a few minutes later.
June 11, 2018
12:05 a.m. Four Orlando police officers are dispatched to the apartment complex. By 12:44 a.m. six more Orlando police officers have arrived at the scene.
1:05 a.m. Westbrook Apartment residents began calling 911 reporting shots fired.
A resident later told News 6 she looked out her window and saw an injured officer lying in the grass.
1:07 a.m. Police called in an "officer down" at 1:07 a.m., records show. Officer Kevin Valencia was shot in the head by Lindsey, OPD Chief John Mina will later say. Police drive him to Orlando Regional Medical Center.
1:24 a.m. Orlando police request SWAT support.
1:31 a.m. Another call a SWAT team is sent out.
2:26 a.m. Authorities set up a mobile command center at the main entrance of Westbrook Apartments of Eaglesmere.
2:30 a.m. Lindsey’s friend calls Lindsey’s sister in Jacksonville and tells her Lindsey is threatening to kill himself.
4:40 a.m. Lindsey’s sister called Orlando 911 from Jacksonville saying she saw the news about the standoff in Orlando and a friend of Lindsey’s was receiving texting messages from her brother hat indicated he was going to kill himself.
“All I know is that how many of these can be going on right now," she said putting the standoff and her brother’s texts together.
5:17 a.m. Police learn from Lindsey's sister that their father recently died and Lindsey inherited two rifles, two shotguns and a handgun.
8:30 p.m. Mina said the decision was made to breach the windows of the apartment in an attempt to make better contact with Lindsey. Orange County SWAT officers said they saw one of the children was obviously dead.
9 p.m. SWAT officers enter the apartment to find all four children Irayan Pluth, 12, Lillia Pluth, 10, Aidan Lindsey, 6, and Dove Lindsey, 1, shot to death in their beds. Lindsey, the father of two of the children, was found dead in a closet from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said.
June 12, 2018
Just after 12:00 a.m. The Orlando police chief announces publicly to the news media that the standoff had ended and all four children were found dead, as well as Lindsey.
"As you know the Orlando Police Department and the Orange County Sheriff's Office have been working very hard during this long day to bring this situation to a peaceful resolution," Mina said. "Unfortunately it has a very tragic and sad ending. A short time ago we made entry into the apartment and found that all four children have been killed by the suspect, by apparent gunshot wounds, and it appears the suspect took his own life as well.”
Chief Mina and Sheriff Demings brief the media following 21’-hour standoff. pic.twitter.com/nXau5Y4euJ
— Orlando Police (@OrlandoPolice) June 12, 2018