Florida father shoots his daughter and son moments after their mother kissed them goodnight

A Florida father fatally shot his five-year-old daughter and left his eight-year-old son fighting for his life moments after their mother kissed them goodnight. 

On Monday evening at around 10:00 p.m., the children’s mother came back to her home in Tampa to tuck her children into bed before going to sleep. The two children were sleeping in their bunk beds. She kissed the two kids and left the room to go to the bathroom. 

Moments later, she heard multiple shots fired. She initially thought the gunshots came from outside. However, she realized the terrible truth: it was coming from inside her home. 

She rushed out of her house, where she ran into a neighbor, who was calling 911. Her husband also came rushing out of the house carrying their wounded son. 

“Call for help, call for help, call for help,” the father said, according to Sheriff Chad Chronister.

“When our deputies initially arrive on the scene, they see the father in the family room cradling the eight-year-old son saying it was an accident,” Chronister said. The father told the deputies, “I don't know how the gun went off, I accidentally shot my son.”

When the officials asked the father if anyone else was in the house, he responded that his daughter was “upstairs sleeping,” the sheriff continued. 

“Deputies go upstairs only to find the gruesome discovery that there's a five-year-old laying in the top bunk laying in a pool of her own blood,” Chronister said. “She is shot two or three times in her head. The same injury that the eight-year-old had sustained and suffered from.”

Both children were rushed to the hospital. The eight-year-old boy was left fighting for his life, while the five-year-old girl did not survive.  

Jermaine Lavanda Bass, 30, was arrested on August 29 and charged with first-degree murder, first-degree attempted murder, and aggravated child abuse. 

Bass claims that he “accidentally” shot his children multiple times in the head while they lay in bed. 

“You don't accidentally shoot your children three to four times in the head,” the sheriff said. “I don't know why he did this… 'I don't know if we will ever know.”

The mother has not made a complete statement to the police yet.