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Courtesy photos.
At left, Johnnie Burke, 51, of Deltona, far left, dies of a self-inflictede gunshot wound after fatally shooting his ex-girlfriend, Robin Whitaker, 46, and her husband of one year, Charles Whitaker, 48, early Tuesday morning, according to the Volusia County Sheriff's Office.
DELTONA -- A 51-year-old Deltona man, armed with two semi-automatic pistols, shot and killed his former girlfriend and then her husband, before turning a gun on himself in an early Tuesday morning bloodbath.
The shooter was identified by the Volusia County Sheriff's Office as 51-year-old Johhnie Burke, who died a short time later at Florida Hospital Fish Memorial in Orange City. Robin Whitaker, 46, was shot to death inside her car and her husband of one year, Chuck Whitaker, 48, shot in the front entrance way of their home on Otis Avenue.
"I heard some shots, ‘Pow pow pow pow pow!’ six or seven shots," neighbor Jose Corrales, who was first on the scene of the 6:30 a.m. double-homicide and suicide, told WFTV. Corrales saw Johnnie Burke first, squirming on the ground and choking on his own blood, WFTV reported, then he saw his two friends, Robin and Chuck Whitaker.
The Volusia County Medical Examiner's Office has taken possession of the bodies and is scheduled to conduct autopsies on Wednesday to confirm the cause of death. The victims from this morning's shooting in Deltona include a husband and wife, who died at the scene.
"The man who was pronounced dead at the hospital and who is believed to be the shooter was a former boyfriend of the female victim," Sheriff's spokesman Gary Davidson said. "He showed up at the married couple's house and shot the female while she was sitting in a car in the couple's driveway. The husband then came to the front door and was shot dead in the doorway. The shooter then turned the gun on himself while in the front yard."
The bloody scene was described by 9-1-1 callers before deputies arrived. Here is a snippet of one of those calls: "It appears somebody was shot in the head. Another guy that's about maybe 15 feet away from him has two pistols on the floor. He's breathing but he's been shot in the head, too. There's another person in the car, she's been shot."