Child dies following triple shooting in Haines City

HAINES CITY, Fla. (FOX 13) - Authorities are continuing to search for 38-year-old Ernst Cherizard in connection to a triple shooting Friday night in Haines City. 

Police said Cherizard shot his 23-year-old girlfriend, Eli Junia Normil, inside a Haines City apartment complex before turning the gun on Normil's 6-year-old daughter, Elizabelle Frenel. Police said the girl was shot three times; one of those shots was fired directly at the young girl's head. The girl died just before 11 p.m. on Saturday. 

"I was traumatized," Normil's brother Annel Normil said. "I spoke to her two days ago and she was like 'I'm doing good bro I'm working.' She's the manager at one of the fast-food restaurants down in the Haines City area."

Cherizard also shot Normil's mother, 48-year-old Nicole Guillume, who showed up a short time later looking for her daughter, the family told FOX 13.

"It's disgusting to say the least. I can't say what I'd like to say about him, but that's why all I'm going to tell you is he's a male. Not much of a man to shoot a child and two females, not much of a man there," said Chief Jim Elensky with the Haines City Police Department. 

After the shooting, Cherizard fled the scene, leaving the little girl for dead.

Investigators said he took off in a 2011 Nissan Ultima with Florida tag GZN C82. 

"No motivation, no motive at this point. [It's still] early on in the investigation," Elensky said. 

Annel Normil said he had only met Cherizard a few times, but never imagined he would harm his sister.

"He always talked to me like he cared for my sister and that he wanted to marry her one day," Normil said. "He always seems cool to me. I don't think he would have ever done something like that."

According to police, Cherizard took to Facebook early Saturday morning to explain the shooting. The post said in part that he and Normil were fighting for the gun when "he lost it," adding that it was like he "heard voices in his head."

Cherizard said what he did was "pure evil" and ended the post apologizing to his children. 

"Daddy is so sorry with all my heart," he wrote. "I can't even explain what happened [because] I can't believe this happened."

"He got no heart, he's got no heart like I told you. That's embarrassing," said Angel Mendez, a nearby resident of the Citrus Ridge Apartments. 

An unnerving thought for neighbors to know that this man could be capable of such a heartless crime. 

"I hope they catch him and put him behind bars," Mendez said. "That's what he deserves."

The 6-year-old girl was not Cherizard's child; however, he did have two children with Normil. 

Cherizard was last spotted passing the Boynton Beach toll plaza shortly after midnight Saturday.

Cherizard is believed to be armed and dangerous. Anyone with information is urged to call 911 immediately.