A Florida resident with BVI heritage has committed suicide after killing his girlfriend and her sister.
Investigators identified the gunman in Wednesday’s double murder on Overlook Road as 22-year-old Anthony Ashan Stoutt of Delray Beach. Stoutt took his own life after fleeing from deputies on I-95 near St. Augustine in northeast Florida, the sheriff’s office said.
The sheriff’s office will not identify the victims of the shooting due to Marsy’s Law, but an uncle told the media that the murder victims are his nieces, 20-year-old Rebeca Rose Davila and her sister, 19-year-old Sofia Davila.
Rebeca Davila, in a court filing for a petition for injunction for protection against repeat violence from September 2019, said Stoutt threatened to kill anyone who filed a restraining order against him.
The statement happened after an incident where Rebeca said he tried to speak with Sofia at Ivy Palm Beach. Rebeca said she tried to keep Stoutt from talking to her sister when he grabbed Sofia, punched Rebeca’s friend and her boyfriend. Rebeca wrote “I fear for my safety because Anthony has stated he will kill anyone who files a restraining order against him. My younger sister and I spend everyday together which is why I am filing for a restraining order. Sofia, my sister, is too scared to file a protective order.”
The incident came months after another confrontation with Stoutt where he reportedly followed Sofia in a car and broke out a tail light with a hammer, court records show.
Stoutt was under a restraining order when he attacked the two sisters Wednesday.
“You know the system failed us. We made several reports, we tried to keep this person in jail. And it just ended bad. If there’s a way that, you know, people can come together and create something to prevent something like this happening again in my sister Sofia’s name, I would really like to see that happen so that nobody ever has to go through this tragedy again,” said Jasmin, a sister of the two victims.
Jasmin declined to give her last name.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office said authorities issued a warrant for Stoutt on two counts of first-degree murder.
Authorities in St. Johns County in northeast Florida came into contact with Stoutt’s car, a white 2-door Honda, flagged as a violent fleeing felon from South Florida. The car ended up crashing after deputies used stop-sticks. The St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office said the driver shot himself and died later at the hospital.
Jasmin says the family hopes that a law can be passed that would force an abusive person such as Stoutt, who had previous arrests for violence, to be involuntarily committed for assessment, similar to the Marchman Act, in which a person can be assessed and treated for abusing alcohol or drugs.
She says this tragedy could’ve been prevented if the legal system had done its job.
Friends set up a GoFundMe page for the Davila sisters. One of the sisters’ friends told CBS12 News that a candlelight vigil is planned for Friday night in Miami at 7 p.m.