2019 Sebring, Florida shooting

On January 23, 2019, at around 12:30 pm, five women – four employees and a customer – were shot and killed at the SunTrust Bank in Sebring, Florida. Zephen Xaver, age 21, is accused of murdering the five, after which he called police to report himself. Incident: At around 12:30 pm, a witness says he saw Zephen Xaver pacing back and forth inside the bank with five people lying side by side on the floor. Shots were later heard, and Xaver phoned the police at 12:36 pm ET, and told responders that he had shot five people. SWAT arrived, trying to negotiate to get the barricaded suspect to leave the bank. When those negotiations failed, members of the SWAT team entered the bank by ramming an armored vehicle through its glass front doors. The suspect eventually surrendered. The lone survivor of the shooting was a bank employee who had been in the bank's break room just before Xaver walked in. The employee escaped out the back door when gunshots first rang out; after getting outside, he called 911. Victims: Five women were discovered by police, shot execution style in their heads and backs. They were identified over the week as Debra Cook, Marisol Lopez, Jessica Montague, Cynthia Lee Watson, and Ana Piñon-Williams. Watson was a customer at the bank; the four other women were employees. Suspect: Zephen A. Xaver, was identified as the perpetrator after surrendering to officers. He was identified as a former Florida Department of Corrections correctional officer trainee, with the Avon Park Correctional Institution near the Avon Park Air Force Range but resigned on January 9, 2019. A former girlfriend told reporters that Xaver "always hated people and wanted everybody to die" and he had been sent to a behavioral health center for having a dream of killing everyone in the class and had threatened it previously. In March 2017 Michigan State Police contacted Bremen Police, that a female student had received messages from Xaver, in which he wrote he wanted to do suicide by cop, and to take hostages, however his mother declined police assistance. Xavier is held by police without bond, and was appointed a public defender as he had no income or assets.