FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Deputies have released a 911 call in the wake of a cross-Florida mass murder spree that authorities said began with a Fort Lauderdale man killing two people in the city’s Victoria Park neighborhood and ended with him killing four more in Sarasota before taking his own life.
Authorities said 51-year-old Russell Kot first killed Larisa Blyudaya, 46, and Ben Azivov, 18, at an apartment near Northeast 15th Avenue and Fifth Street, then drove up to Sarasota, where he shot and killed Olga Greinert, 49; Florita Stolyar, 66; Anatoly Ioffe, 61; and Yaroslav Blyudoy, 39, before turning the gun on himself.
The victims are believed to be related.
A frantic neighbor is heard in the 911 call released by the Sarasota Sheriff’s Office.
“I think my neighbor’s been shot. I just walked outside,” the caller said. “My neighbor, Tony, is laying on the ground. His house is open and there’s blood all over his stomach.”
Back in Fort Lauderdale on Wednesday, family members were spotted outside of the Victoria Park apartment consoling one another. Property manager Joe Askerberg said complimentary things about Blyudaya, calling her friendly and a good tenant.
“She had guests down from Chicago, which is where she hailed from,” Askerberg said. “She sold her house there and moved here in search of maybe a warmer life.”
Mark Scianna, a neighbor, told Local 10 News that he saw a man wearing what looked like a runner’s mask arriving at the house, then going inside.
“A guy came running around here and he went to the driveway and hit the keypad on the garage door, and the door went up, and I just didn’t think anything of it,” Scianna said. “I thought she knew him and he was just a runner or something, and he had a mask on. It was like a runner’s mask.”
Blyudaya’s ex-husband told Local 10 News over the phone that Azivov is his and Larissa’s son.
He says the Sarasota County victims are immediate family members.
Detectives said Kot had been in a prior romantic relationship with one of the victims in Fort Lauderdale. It’s unclear what could have motivated him to go on a deadly rampage.
Copyright 2026 by WPLG Local10.com - All rights reserved.
