Father Shoots Daughter, 5, And Son, 8, In Head After Mother Kissed Them Goodnight

A man shot his 5-year-old daughter and 8-year-old son inside their home in Tampa, Florida, after the mother kissed the kids goodnight.

The girl succumbed to her injuries while the boy is still fighting for his life.

The children's mother had rushed home from a dinner Monday night so she could say goodnight to her kids, according to Tampa Bay Times. Sheriff Chad Chronister of Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office said at a news conference Tuesday morning that the mother tucked her kids in their bunk beds around 10:30 p.m. and kissed them goodnight.

As the woman went to use the bathroom, her husband, Jermaine Lavanda Bass, 30, watched the kids. While she was in the bathroom, the mother heard gunshots and ran outside to find another neighbor already on a 911 call to report the gunfire.

Bass rushed out of the house with their 8-year-old son in his arms. "Call for help, call for help," he said, according to details provided by Chronister.

The father was found cradling his wounded son when deputies responded to the call. He told them he accidentally shot the boy.

When deputies later asked if there was anyone else inside the house, Bass told them his 5-year-old daughter was asleep upstairs, according to the New York Post.

"Deputies go upstairs only to make the gruesome discovery that there's a 5-year-old girl laying in a top bunk, laying in a pool of her own blood," Chronister said at the conference.

The children were both found with two or three gunshot wounds each.

"You don't accidentally shoot your children three to four times in the head," Chronister added.

The two young victims were rushed to the hospital, where the girl was pronounced dead and the boy was given immediate medical attention.

"This is a case and experience that no parent should have to live through, and that no law enforcement officer or first responder should ever have to witness," Chronister told reporters. "We as a Sherriff's Office are struggling today."

Bass was charged with first-degree premeditated murder with a firearm, first-degree premeditated attempted murder with a firearm and aggravated child abuse.

"I don't know why he did this, I don't know if we'll ever know," Chronister added.

Hillsborough County court records reportedly show that Bass had filed for divorce on June 8, but the petition was dropped around a week later.

Chronister also noted that Bass did not have any previous run-ins with law enforcement officials.

"I can't imagine how something like that could happen," a neighbor, Natalia Canty, told Spectrum News. "I can't imagine what that mother's going through right now, it's just awful."

"Things happen between grown people but the kids, they don't have to be between that," added neighbor Arthur Matos. "That's so sad."