SANFORD, Fla. _ A woman is dead and her sons, ages 7 and 8, and her father are in the hospital after a shooting that also hurt two other people.
Police have arrested Allen Dion Cashe, 31, a man with a long arrest history, whom they described as the woman's boyfriend.
One of the boys is in extremely critical condition "fighting for his life," Sanford police spokesman Bianca Gillett said. The woman's father and the other boy are in critical condition.
The two other victims include a Winter Springs High School student who apparently was waiting for her bus, police said. They were in stable condition at Central Florida Regional Hospital in Sanford.
The shooting happened a little after 6 a.m. at a home on Hays Drive, but the couple began arguing over some belongings a few hours earlier at a gas station, Gillett said.
A police officer had separated the couple at the gas station. A short time later, police got a call that the argument was continuing on the front lawn at the house on Hays Drive.
An officer went to the house and while talking with the couple, a third party called 911 to report that Cashe had a gun. But the officer didn't see one and Cashe went on his way.
Then the woman gave the officer a bag of Cashe's things, including a gun, Gillett said.
Police got word of the shooting not long after the officer left.
Gillett said the suspect ran east after opening fire inside the house and shot the Winter Springs High student and a man near a school bus stop. The victims' names have not been released.
A Sanford police officer in the area heard the second shooting and spotted Cashe and followed him to Seminole Garden Apartments, where he was taken into custody. A gun was found in Cashe's vehicle, police said.
Cashe pleaded no contest in 2015 to being a felon in possession of a firearm and was placed on 18 months' probation, which was scheduled to end Friday. But he also has a pending violation-of-probation case against him. He also served six months in jail for punching a former live-in girlfriend in Casselberry in 2012.
On Monday, Dominique Smith, 17, said she was waiting for a school bus near Hartwell Avenue with three classmates when the man shot bystanders. She said she first noticed the man dressed in all black and then realized he had a gun. He started running and everyone scattered, she said.
Smith, who was standing on Hays Drive with her mom watching the police investigate, said she feels for everyone involved.
"I seen all this," she said. "I don't even feel safe right now."
Neighbors described the scene as "total chaos."
Arlene Bush said she heard about a dozen gunshots with a pause between each shot and ran outside to see her neighbor _ the grandfather _ on the ground.
As she stood inside the crime-scene tape with other neighbors, Bush, her voice wavering, recounted calling 911 and rushing to help.
"When I looked at that man, I didn't know if he was going to make it," she said.
Bush said the two boys who were shot are her kids' best friends. The play basketball in the street together, she said.
"These little boys didn't ask for this," she said.
Gwen McKinney said she works with their mother at a Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen and described her as a strong, hardworking mom.
McKinney, wearing a burgundy Popeyes shirt, said through tears that she got a text message about the shooting and left work to go to the scene. She said the woman loved her boys more than anything and always worked hard for them.
She had been living in the house on Hays Drive with her father since her mother's death about a year ago.
McKinney said she used to drive the boys to church and is praying they are OK. She said their mother got "messed up with the wrong people" when she recently began seeing Cashe.
Sanford police spotted him with a handgun on the floorboard of his car in 2014 and arrested him. They also found, tucked inside a Sony PlayStation console in the car, four plastic bags containing small amounts of cocaine and a bag of pain pills, according to an arrest report. Prosecutors dropped the drug charges in a plea deal. In a separate case, he was convicted in 2010 of possession of cocaine.
He also has been arrested in Seminole County for acts including threatening to kill a relative and pointing a gun at a man had had loaned money to, but prosecutors dropped the charges _ sometimes because the victim would not cooperate.
Four people _ but not the victim of Monday's shooting _ petitioned for domestic-violence injunctions against Cashe, and a judge granted one request in 2005. Details were not available.
The paternal grandfather of the boys who were shot, Theodore Jones, told reporters outside Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children, "They (are) strong," he said. "They are going to fight."
"They ain't got their mother, but they have their granddaddy and daddy and God on their side," he added, tears in his eyes.
