In the last few hours, the police announced the identity of the man who last Friday murdered the Cuban mother Odalys María Bancroft and Theodor Couto, her little son who was about to turn four years old.
The murderer, who committed suicide after fatally shooting mother and sonhas been identified as Michael Andrés Pineda Lozano, 41 years old.
Pineda Lozano – a Hispanic whose nationality of origin has not been revealed – was not Theodor’s biological father, although he maintained 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, according to reports. Telemundo 51.
In previous statements to the aforementioned media outlet, Michael Trujillo, brother of the murdered Cuban, was shocked by the double crime.
“There is no scenario in which I could think this could happen. I still can’t understand it. It is very difficult. There is a lot of pain. It’s still a big surprise that something so terrible happened to our family.”Trujillo said.
“They had their drama, but we never imagined that something so terrible could happen. I didn’t believe he had the capacity to do something so bad,” said the woman’s brother, visibly moved.
The 43-year-old woman was in line in her vehicle on June 7 to withdraw money at a Chase ATM, in West Kendall, southwest of Miami-Dade, when her ex-partner parked next to her and he fatally shot her and her sonwho 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, of the Miami Police, confirmed that the murderer was in a van and that he stopped outside the bank, next to a minivan where the mother and son were, who were waiting their turn in line at the ATM. .
Michael Andrés Pineda came out and shot them several times with a long gun. He then 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 the gunshots. When he arrived at the scene, he found the three bodies.
After arriving at the scene, the father of the murdered minor – named Vicente Couto and of Cuban origin – had to be treated by officers because he was completely devastated.
Odalys Bancroft, who identified herself as “Odalys María” on her Facebook account, She was director of regulatory affairs at Jackson Health System, where she began working in 2015 as a clinical nurse. Recently he worked at Holtz Children’s Hospital.
The journalist of UnivisionMario Vallejo, for his part, stated that Odalys María Bancroft had an unfortunate love life, since public records contain several complaints with different partners.
Relatives of the victims created two accounts on the collection platform GoFundMe to help with the funeral expenses of Odalys and little Theodore.
