A Florida mom was shot dead during her 10-year-old daughter’s first online class of the new school year, authorities said Wednesday.
Maribel Morales-Rosado, 32, was allegedly murdered by ex-boyfriend Donald J. Williams, 27, at her Indiantown home Tuesday morning, in a fatal shooting witnessed via Zoom by her daughter’s teacher, tcpalm.com reports.
“The teacher said that she heard a commotion, heard profanity, realized there was some kind of domestic altercation, [but] still could see the child online,” Martin County Sheriff William Snyder told the outlet.
The unidentified female teacher at Warfield Elementary School told police that she muted the call to prevent other students in the class from hearing the disturbance, according to Snyder.
The teacher then saw the 10-year-old “put her hands up to her ears” in an apparent reaction to the sound of gunfire, before the child’s computer screen went dark when it was struck by a projectile, Snyder said.
A total of six children aged between 10 to 17 were in the house at the time and most are thought to have witnessed the shooting, according to investigators.
Williams had allegedly gone to his former girlfriend’s home to challenge her about a video she may have posted online.
“He went in and confronted her with something to do with a video,” Snyder said. “And then later we learned there was a conversation about Facebook.”
Detectives believe that Williams fired the fatal shots using a handgun stolen in a 2015 vehicle burglary.
Williams, who lives a couple of streets away from his alleged victim, fled by bicycle to a nearby laundromat before attempting to board a bus. However, the bus driver became suspicious of his behavior and alerted authorities.
Williams was arrested some 40 minutes after the shooting and charged with first-degree murder, armed burglary and armed home invasion.
Morales-Rosado was taken to Lawnwood Regional Medical Center & Heart Institute in Fort Pierce, where she died.
The onetime couple had been separated for over a year, and Morales-Rosado was recently released from jail in connection with a domestic battery case in which Williams was the victim, Snyder said.