FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Police are investigating after the bodies of two people were found inside an apartment in Fort Lauderdale’s Victoria Park neighborhood on Tuesday.
Authorities say it’s connected to a suspected murder-suicide in a Sarasota neighborhood in which five people, including the suspect, were found dead.
The now-deceased suspect in all six killings was identified by police as Russell Kot, 51, of Fort Lauderdale.
The Fort Lauderdale shooting happened in the area of Northeast 15th Avenue and Fifth Street. Police said they were called to the home at around 1:30 p.m. for a welfare check, when they discovered Larisa Blyudaya, 46, and Ben Azizov, 18, dead.
According to the Sarasota Sheriff’s Office, deputies there had been called to a gated community after a man was found shot in a front yard Tuesday afternoon and was later pronounced dead.
A news release states that deputies entered the home and found two men and two women dead. One of them was Kot.
The sheriff’s office later identified the four Sarasota victims as Olga Greinert, 49; Florita Stolyar, 66; Anatoly Ioffe, 61; and Yaroslav Blyudoy, 39.
Fort Lauderdale police then called the sheriff’s office to inform them that detectives believed the two incidents were connected, the news release states.
“Based on preliminary information, we know that the suspect had been in a previous romantic relationship with one of the victims in Fort Lauderdale,” it states. “That victim was connected to the victims in Sarasota. The suspect’s motivation for targeting the Sarasota victims is unknown.”
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