Venezuelan American suspected of killing three-year old son, self in Miami penthouse murder-suicide

A 53-year-old Venezuelan American allegedly killed his three-year-old son at his Coconut Grove home in the Coconut Grove neighborhood of Miami (Florida), and then took his own life, Miami Police reported Thursday.

The man, identified by police as José Manuel González Testino, reportedly divorced from the boy's mother last October, and was previously arrested in Miami in 2018 for participating in a bribery network connected to the state-owned Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA).

In 2019, he pleaded guilty to his participation in paying bribes to officials of PDVSA and its subsidiary Citgo, based in Houston (Texas), to secure and maintain energy and logistics contracts, according to a press release previously published by the U.S. Dept. of Justice. 

In his guilty plea, González Testino admitted that from early 2012 until at least 2018, he conspired with others to bribe PDVSA officials.

Miami police officers found the bodies of González Testino and his son this Wednesday after a family member requested a search of the penthouse in which they resided to verify the state of well-being of both individuals, reports indicated.

Police officers knocked on the door of the apartment located on the 19th floor of the Coconut Grove residential building where they lived, on South Bayshore Drive, but no one answered.

Once inside, the police found the bodies of both father and son with fatal gunshot wounds.

"It's a tragic scene to see a 3-year-old boy who just lost his life. It's heartbreaking," Miami Police Officer Michael Vega to a local NBC affiliate.

The alleged murder-suicide remains under investigation.