Trending Topics

Video: Fla. deputy carries kids, wounded mother to safety amid gunfire

Emmanuel Rosado shot his wife at their home with their three children inside, and then he opened fire on deputies

By Patricio G. Balona
The News-Journal

DELTONA, Fla. — A Deltona woman’s call to a 9-1-1 operator on Sunday ended suddenly with a scream. Silence followed, and then the disconnecting tone of a telephone.

At the same time Volusia County sheriff’s deputy Eric Cheek responding to the call heard the woman’s scream, followed by a gunshot, as he approached the Alameda Drive home.

A body camera worn by deputy Justin Ferrari captured the scene of the shooting, as Ferrari ran to rescue a woman bleeding from her lower body, found near a garage door. Ferrari also rescues three small crying children running out through a back door of the house.

As Cheek approached the home after the gunshot, he heard a man, later identified as Emmanuel Rosado, 26, saying “you are going to die today,” according to a report.

The chilling call for help was released Monday, along with the sheriff’s report.

Officials said Rosado shot his wife at their home with their three children inside, and then he opened fire on deputies. About 18 deputies responded to the call, according to several reports from the Sheriff’s Office.

Cheek heard more shots and a small girl shouting, “Don’t kill her, don’t kill her,” a report states.

Fearing for the safety of those in the house, Cheek ran to the front door but then saw the silhouette of man approaching to lock the dead bolt.

More shots rang out and Cheek dove behind an oak tree for cover.

Volusia deputies said that Rosado had been arguing with his wife, Victoria Rosado, 26, over custody of their 1-year-old and shot her in the buttocks about 12:37 p.m. Sunday.

Emmanuel Rosado is charged with three counts of attempted first-degree murder and was being held Monday without bail.

In the 9-1-1 recording, the wife told a dispatcher the argument started over custody of the child.

“He wants me to sign custody over to him so he could take the baby to Georgia, my daughter,” the woman said.

During the call to 9-1-1, Victoria Rosado could be heard telling her husband repeatedly to go away, and to go back to Georgia.

“I don’t want to leave like this,” Emmanuel Rosado is heard saying.

Victoria Rosado, who said she is trying to separate from Emmanuel Rosado, told the dispatcher that her husband had a concealed weapons license and that he had a 9 mm pistol on his waist with a AR-15 semi-automatic rifle on the couch.

“Just don’t antagonize him,” the dispatcher her. “We don’t know how far he can go.”

Victoria Rosado told 9-1-1 she didn’t think her husband would do anything “stupid” and that he “is very respectful when it comes to the authorities.”

The woman is heard asking her husband to put the gun away because she didn’t want him to get shot when deputies came into the house.

“He keeps coming closer to me,” Victoria Rosado told the dispatcher.

Then a scream follows and the telephone disconnects.

Deputies said several shots were heard. As Cheek sought cover, they saw a woman crawling on the front walkway between the front door and the garage door, then into the driveway. Ferrari ran to the woman and picked her up and helped her seek shelter at a neighbor’s home. The video shows Ferrari desperately knocking on an neighbor’s door to get help for the injured woman.

Ferrari also helped the three small children running out a back door to safety, as other deputies spotted Emmanuel Rosado also coming out of the door onto the back porch and stopped him at gunpoint, where he surrendered, investigators said.

Inside the home, deputies found the AR-15 rifle, the pistol and several rounds of ammunition.

Emmanuel Rosado apologized several times for shooting at deputies and asked how the deputies and the children were doing. He would not talk about shooting his wife, deputies said.

But one of the children, a 4-year-old, told deputies Emmanuel Rosado threatened to shoot his mother before firing the gun.

“I saw him shoot Mommy in the butt,” the child told deputies, according to reports.

Copyright 2016 The News-Journal