LONGWOOD, Fla. – A police officer on Friday placed flowers at a memorial site outside a Longwood home where a 3-year-old girl was killed.
The moving gesture took place at the Highland Street home where the girl and her 12-year-old sister were attacked early Thursday.
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“The officers have actually a few took it upon themselves to buy some flowers and balloons and go out and place them in front of the house, just so that if the 12-year-old comes back, she can see the support, not only from the community, but the police department as well,” Longwood police Sgt. Derek Chenoweth said.
Longwood police have identified Juan Bravo-Torres, 39, the father of the two girls, as the killer. Investigators said Bravo-Torres was also found, having slashed his own wrists and throat.
Police said the 12-year-old girl, who was critically wounded, played dead until her father was unconscious, then walked to a McDonald’s about a mile away, where her mom worked, to get help.
“It is incredible that this 12-year-old, after being injured at the house, was able to walk nearly a mile to summon help,” Chenoweth said. “It speaks volumes about her courage and what it took to get away from danger and find help as quickly as she did. If she wasn’t able to do that, who knows when we would have received the call about this incident.”
A Longwood PD officer just stopped by the home where a 4 y/o girl was found stabbed to death yesterday.
— Ezzy Castro (@EzzyCastro) July 22, 2022
The officer placed flowers on the ground
Her 12 y/o sister was also stabbed & is at the hospital
Police are calling their father a person of interest in the case @news6wkmg pic.twitter.com/hqwHS489KT
Bravo-Torres and the 12-year-old girl remain hospitalized.
A motive for the attack is not known.
“It’s something that unfortunately law enforcement, firefighters, public safety professionals, you expect that you’re going to encounter something like this at some point in your career, but you can never prepare for it,” Chenoweth said. “There’s still the human aspect where there’s grief, and we have resources in place to help the firefighters and officers.”
He added the community is still reeling during this difficult time.
“A lot of us have children of our own, some of us grandchildren. This is a very small, tight-knit community and we have a lot of vested interest in our community,” Chenoweth said.
Sean McGee, who lives nearby, said he’s heartbroken.
“It’s super scary. I mean, you just come outside and see all these police cars, and it’s kind of like, ‘What happened?’” he said. “Any loss of life is just terrible, but when there’s children involved ... I have four little siblings. I don’t even want to think about it. I don’t know what I would do, but (I’m) just praying for whoever’s involved,” McGee said.
Tamika Washington, another neighbor and a mother herself, said she would watch the 3-year-old and 12-year-old girls leave every Sunday to go to church with their mom.
“Oh my god. I couldn’t even believe it. Just beautiful kids,” Washington said. “I don’t know what led to this. Maybe he could have avoided this and called for help instead of doing it to these babies. They didn’t deserve it. I’m just sad and I’m sorry this happened. This street will never be the same no more. It will never be the same, because since I’ve been here, they’ve been here.”