A 21-year-old man entered a SunTrust Bank in Sebring, FL, Wednesday afternoon and shot five women dead, then barricaded himself in the bank before surrendering to a SWAT team, reports the Miami Herald.
That's according to Sebring police and Highlands County Sheriff's Office, who named the murder suspect as 21-year-old Sebring resident Zephen Xaver. Sebring Police Chief Karl Hoglund said in a news conference Thursday they have no information as to what Xaver’s motive may have been, but Xaver has been charged with five counts of murder and will be held in jail without bond, the Miami Herald reports.
Four of the women killed were bank employees and the other was a customer. One employee was in a break room and was able to escape the bank and survive.
Sebring police said a man contacted the Sebring police around 12:36 p.m. and said he'd fired shots inside the bank, drawing both Sebring police and the Sheriff's Office to the SunTrust branch.
"After negotiations to try to get the barricaded subject to exit the bank were not successful, the HCSO SWAT team entered the bank and continued the negotiations," the Sebring police said. "The suspect eventually surrendered to the HCSO SWAT team."
"I have been in law enforcement all of my adult life and this horrific incident shocks and angers me more than anything I have encountered in my career," Highlands County Sheriff Paul Blackman wrote in a Facebook post.