Pedro José Maldonado, a Weston father and husband, went on a premeditated murderous and violent rampage that ended with him killing himself in a motel after murdering his wife and one of his sons with a crossbow.
According to the Broward Sheriff's Office, Maldonado shot his wife and son with a hand-held crossbow before driving to Tallahassee, where he planned to murder his other son.
Homicide detectives are still trying to put together the murderous timeline. But, from what they've gathered so far, Moldanado, 53, apparently killed his wife Monica Narvaez-Maldonado, 47, and 17-year-old Pedro José Maldonado Jr. on Monday.
He then jumped into his car and drove to Tallahassee, where his eldest son, 21-year-old Jose, attends college at Florida State University.
Maldonado apparently rented out a motel room in Tallahassee early Tuesday morning. Then, around 7:00 a.m. that morning, he attempted to shoot his son Jose with the crossbow, according to the BSO report.
However, Jose was able to dodge the small arrow, which struck his ear. That's when his father began strangling him. Jose was able to pry himself free, and ran off.
Jose did not report the attack at the time.
On Tuesday afternoon, around 4:15 p.m., Maldonado called a friend in Miami and confessed to murdering his wife and young son. The friend then called BSO. The friend reportedly did not know Maldonado's whereabouts when he had called and confessed.
Members of BSO's SWAT team were immediately dispatched to Maldonado's Weston townhouse on 4266 Vineyard Circle. There was no response to knocks on the door, or phone calls to the mother or Pedro Jr.'s cell phones.
The SWAT team then forced their way into the darkened home, where they discovered the bodies.
On Tuesday afternoon, BSO set out a notification that they were searching for Maldonado, whom they described as armed and dangerous.
BSO is searching for Pedro Maldonado responsible for killing a woman and a teen boy. Maldonado is armed/dangerous. pic.twitter.com/u6RiZWPlL2
— WSVN-TV (@wsvn) December 4, 2013With the cooperation of the Columbia County Sheriff's Office and the Lake City Police Department, BSO homicide detectives were able to track down Maldonado's black Volvo SUV at the Cabot Lodge on 3525 W. U.S. 90, in Lake City.
A SWAT negotiator attempted to make contact Maldonado for hours, with no success.
At around 2:00 a.m. Wednesday morning, the SWAT team entered Maldonado's motel room, where they found him dead from an apparent suicide. He had slit his own throat.
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