Hialeah Shooting Rampage Timeline
HIALEAH (CBS4) – Here is a timeline of events that happened Friday night as witnesses said Pedro Vargas went on a shooting rampage at a Hialeah apartment complex.
It all ended with a flash and SWAT members shooting and killing Pedro Vargas.
It started eight hours before SWAT made entry to the apartment where Vargas was located.
- 6:30 p.m.: Friday evening, police said Vargas set fire to thousands of dollars from his bank account in the Hialeah apartment he shared with his elderly mother.
Minutes later, the building managers, Italo and Samira Pisciotti, run to the apartment with a fire extinguisher.
Vargas shoots them as they exit. They were both killed.
- 7:00 p.m.: Vargas goes onto a balcony and starts shooting at firefighters rushing to the scene of the fire.
A bullet hit father of two Carlos Gavilanes across the street as he walked with his son.
He was killed.
- 7:30 p.m.: Vargas forces his way into a third floor apartment and murders the building's maintenance man Patricio Simono, his wife Merly Niebles and their 17-year-old daughter Priscilla Perez who was in a bathtub.
Vargas then takes two hostages and barricades himself in another apartment.
- 12:00 a.m.: Saturday morning, police evacuate some tenants in the building while the others lock themselves in their homes and close their blinds.
- 2:00 a.m.: Negotiations break down. SWAT officers storm the apartment, rescuing the hostages.
They shoot Vargas dozens of times, killing him.
