Father kills mother, grandmother of his child during dispute, Orange deputies say
A 20-year-old man in the midst of a child custody dispute shot and killed the mother and grandmother of his 2-year-old daughter Friday morning at an apartment complex west of Pine Hills, according to an arrest affidavit.
After Radrick Francois shot 20-year-old Tanga Owens and 39-year-old Tanishia Starr in a KIA sedan, he grabbed his daughter and ran inside his apartment, the affidavit said.
Deputies were called for a shooting around 11:30 a.m. Friday at the Lake Sherwood apartments in the 1700 block of London Crest Drive. They found Owens and Starr in the KIA suffering from gunshot wounds. They were taken to the hospital where they were pronounced dead.
Surveillance video from the scene showed Francois, who was wearing a Sesame Street Count Dracula sweatshirt, talking to the women in the car. He then fired shots into the car before running away with the child, according to the affidavit. There was also an 8-month-old baby in the car who was not hurt.
Detectives identified Francois, who lived at the apartment complex, as a suspect. Family members of Owens said she and Francois were in an ongoing child custody battle and he previously threatened to kill her, the affidavit said.
Francois eventually came out of the apartment, where the 2-year-old girl was found unharmed. In an interview with detectives, Francois claimed he shot Owens in self-defense and accidentally shot Starr.
He described Owens as being disrespectful toward him. Francois said Owens was armed and he had to wrestle the gun away from her. After taking the girl out of the car, he said he was giving the gun back to her and it went off after she snatched it from him. The video showed otherwise, according to the affidavit.
A search warrant of the apartment yielded the Sesame Street sweatshirt and 9 mm rounds. He claimed the gun was uncoverable because a person named “Flex” took the gun away from the scene.
Francois is facing two counts of first-degree murder and is at the Orange County Jail without bond.
