5-Year-Old Girl Escapes Shooting Covered in Blood Splatter After Man Allegedly Kills 3 Women in Florida Home: Police By Becca Longmire

A 5-year-old girl managed to escape without being hurt after three females were shot and killed by a gunman in a home in Florida, authorities have said.

On Thursday, July 24 at around 8 p.m. local time, the Nassau County Sheriff’s Office responded to reports of a possible shooting on West 12th Avenue in Hilliard, Nassau County, Sheriff Bill Leeper said at a news conference, per a clip shared by First Coast News.

Leeper told reporters the incident was “tragic,” adding, “It’s heartbreaking and totally, totally was unnecessary.”

He explained that “deputies [had] responded to the residence and attempted to make contact with anyone inside.”

“We got no response. They tried to look through open windows to see if there were any signs of people inside. As they checked the front door, they found it to be unlocked, so they opened the door and announced who they were and called out for anyone, but got no response,” Leeper said.

Officers who entered the residence then saw a female “on the floor, between the living room and dining room, lying in blood,” before noticing a male subject in the living room, with a black assault-style rifle beside him.

Another female was discovered deceased in the hallway bathroom and a further deceased female was found in a bedroom across the hall from the bathroom. The male had a “slight pulse,” and was airlifted to hospital, the sheriff told reporters. 

The male suspect — who has been identified as Christopher Bobby Rowell, 34 — is now clinically dead, the officer said. Leeper confirmed the gun found next to him was a black “SKS-style 7.62 caliber assault rifle.”

Leeper later identified the three female victims to PEOPLE as Marissa Leara Rowell, 32, Sandra Gayle Fogarty, 71, and Alisha Lael Fogarty, 33.

“It appears the shooter first shot the female in the living room, dining room area, then shot the female in the bathroom, and then shot the female in the bedroom,” the sheriff told reporters. “He eventually returned to the living room where he shot himself in the head.”

Discussing the 5-year-old’s escape, the sheriff said, “A neighbor across the street reported that a 5-year-old female, who was inside the residence at the time of the shooting, came to their house, banging on the door and stated the suspect had killed others inside the home,” adding that they then called 911.

“The child said she was in the back of the house, heard a gun shot, she came down the hallway, seen [the] female on the floor,” Leeper said at the conference. “Another female grabbed her, put her in the bathroom.” 

And when the woman who pulled the little girl into the bathroom was shot, Leeper said the 5-year-old “got blood splatter on her.”

The sheriff told reporters the little girl “was in shock, naturally,” following the incident.

“She’s a very strong little girl. Very brave. Beautiful girl. She’s with other relatives at this time. So she’s safe, but she was traumatized,” he said during the conference.

Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE’s free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.  

All those involved in the shooting were related, the sheriff said, but he declined to mention how at the moment. He told reporters that this was “some type of domestic incident,” and said further details would eventually be released amid the ongoing investigation.

In a later press conference, Leeper gave an emotional response to the incident, telling reporters, “As a grandfather of two young children, my heart aches for this child. This kind of violence against family members, especially in the presence of a child, is beyond comprehension. I want to thank the deputies and investigators who worked swiftly to secure the scene and ensure the child was in safe hands.”