A man allegedly shot to death a newlywed nurse and her pastor husband while three of the slain woman’s children were inside the home.
Records show Sony Josaphat, 46, is held without bond at the Main Detention Center in Palm Beach County, Florida. The court scheduled his first appearance in court for 9 a.m. this morning. The court noted a probable cause affidavit but has not uploaded it. Records noted that the state’s victim privacy statute, Marsy’s Law, was invoked.
Authorities did not identify the victims in a news release on Facebook, but a woman told West Palm Beach NBC affiliate WPTV that the slain were a couple, her nurse practitioner sister and pastor brother-in-law. The two were newlyweds, getting married just on Dec. 2. It was the slain woman’s birthday.
“She has never been as happy as she was now,” the sister told the outlet.
Sony Josaphat shot to people to death, said deputies. (Mug shot: Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office)
She said her sister moved from Haiti 25 years ago and worked to becoming a nurse practitioner.
Three of the slain sister’s children were inside the home during the shooting, including an adult who witnessed it, the woman said.
In their news release, deputies simply said they responded Saturday at 8:36 a.m. to a shooting that happened on the 12000 block of Summit Run Circle in West Palm Beach.
They found the two victims dead and identified “a person of interest,” who they did not name.
“Detectives from the Violent Crimes Division are on scene investigating this double shooting as a double homicide,” deputies said. “Detectives are in the process of getting a search warrant to investigate further. Detectives are also in the process of interviewing the ‘person of interest.’”
Authorities at the time did not suggest a motive or present a timeline of events. They did not immediately respond to a Law&Crime request for more information.
“It’s pretty quiet and we don’t have too many things over here so I don’t know how this happened,” Deanne Germeil told WPTV reporter Cassandra Garcia.
Germail reportedly said she did not personally know the couple who died in the “horrific” incident, but she said they belonged to her church.
“I heard what sounded like gunshots, but I thought people were just working on someone’s roof so I ignored it and went into the house and then later when I went back outside that’s when I saw all the police activity out here,” neighbor Dicter Pineda told the reporter.
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