Staff report
Four people are dead following an apparent murder-suicide in Hilliard Thursday evening.
According to Nassau County Sheriff Bill Leeper, NCSO received the call around 8 p.m. Thursday, July 24, from West 12th Avenue in Hilliard. The caller said a 5-year-old girl had banged on their door and told them multiple people had been shot at the house across the street.
Deputies arrived on scene to find a female shot dead in the living-dining room area of the residence, a male in the living room, with a head wound with an assault rifle near him, another deceased female in the bathroom and another deceased female in the bedroom.
The male, later identified as Christopher Rowell, 34, had a slight pulse and Nassau County Fire and Rescue attended to him. He was subsequently airlifted to a hospital in Jacksonville.
According to Leeper, the 5-year-old was in the back of the house when the first woman was shot. Another woman in the house put the child into a bathroom, and then was shot. Leeper said the child witnessed that shooting. The shooter then apparently shot another woman in the bedroom.
Leeper said the female victims were related, but declined to say how. The names of the victims had not been released as of Friday afternoon pending notification of families. Leeper said the victims were a “mix,” some local to Nassau County, some were not.
Rowell remained in the hospital, “clinically deceased,” Leeper said, awaiting organ harvest.
Leeper said NCSO had responded to two previous calls to the address of the shootings; one was COVID-related and the other was unverified. Neither of the calls were related to domestic violence, he said. In addition to the assault rifle, Leeper said there were “several” other weapons in the home as well as multiple magazines of ammunition. Leeper remarked that “the shooter had the courage to shoot himself.”
Leeper, visibly shaken during the press conference, called the girl in the situation “very strong and very brave.” She is with “other relatives,” the sheriff said. He asked the community to pray for the girl.
NCSO has a theory of what occurred in the residence, but deferred to speak on details, pending further investigation.
