The police released the identity of the man who last Friday murdered Cuban mother Odalys María Bancroft and Theodor Couto, her young son who was about to turn four years old.
The murderer, who committed suicide after fatally shooting a mother and her son, has been identified as Michael Andrés Pineda Lozano, 41 years old.
Pineda Lozano - a Hispanic whose original nationality has not been disclosed - was not Theodor's biological father, although he had a romantic relationship with the victim.
Public records reveal that the man had divorced a different partner in 2020, but no incidents of violence were mentioned in the separation petition, as reported by Telemundo 51.
In statements prior to the aforementioned media outlet, Michael Trujillo, brother of the murdered Cuban woman, was in shock over the double crime.
“There is no scenario in which I could have thought that this could happen. I still can't understand it. It's very difficult. There is a lot of pain. It is still a big surprise that something so terrible has happened in our family,” said Trujillo.
"They had their drama, but we never imagined that something so terrible could happen. I didn't think he was capable of doing something so bad," the woman's brother emphasized, visibly moved.
The 43-year-old woman was in line in her car to withdraw money at a Chase ATM in West Kendall, southwest of Miami-Dade, on June 7th when her ex-partner parked next to her and fatally shot her and her son, who had just graduated from PreK4.
During the tragic incident, a witness recorded the chilling moments, and in the audio of the video, a couple could be heard calling the police.
Detective Luis Sierra from the Miami Police confirmed that the murderer was in a truck and stopped outside the bank, next to a minivan where the mother and son were waiting for their turn in the ATM line.
Michael Andrés Pineda went out and shot them several times with a long gun. Then he got into his car, sat in the passenger seat, and committed suicide.
A sergeant from the Kendall district of the Miami Dade Police Department (MDPD) was patrolling the area southbound on Southwest 152nd Avenue when he heard gunshots. Upon arriving at the scene, he found the three bodies.
Upon arriving at the scene, the father of the murdered minor - named Vicente Couto and of Cuban origin - had to be attended to by officers as he was completely devastated.
Odalys Bancroft, who on her Facebook account identified herself as "Odalys Maria," was the director of regulatory affairs at Jackson Health System, where she started working in 2015 as a clinical nurse. Lately, she was working at the Holtz Children's Hospital.
Univision journalist Mario Vallejo pointed out that Odalys María Bancroft had an unfortunate love life, as several complaints with different partners are recorded in public records.
The family members of the victims created two accounts on the fundraising platform GoFundMe to help with the funeral expenses of Odalys and the little Theodore.
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