Police Almost Went To House Of Hialeah Killer Hours Before Shooting

Pedro Alberto Vargas
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Police were nearly dispatched to the home of the killer in the Hialeah, Fla. mass shooting hours before the tragedy, but his mother told police not to come because her son had left the apartment, the Miami Herald reported based on a 911 recording released Wednesday.

The killer, Pedro Alberto Vargas, called 911 early Friday afternoon, and speaking softly in Spanish told the operator, “I’m being threatened, and I’m a victim,” he said. “Could you run a license plate?”

The operator asked who was following him, to which Vargas replied, “People … Sorcery and stuff that is being done on me.”

The operator then asked for Vargas’ mother, who lived in the one-bedroom apartment with him, and the mother told the operator that something was wrong with her son and he was acting “very altered.”

In all, the call lasted more than 12-minutes, but Vargas left the apartment at some point with, according to his mother, a container to get gasoline.

The operator told his mother that two officers were on their way, but she said to cancel the call because her son wasn’t in the apartment anymore. 

Five hours later, Vargas started his shooting rampage in a Hialeah apartment complex that left six people dead. A SWAT team killed Vargas while he was holding two other people hostage. 

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