Deputies heard older brother screaming after shooting
HUDSON, Fla. — Deputies heard one brother screaming as they responded to a shooting Wednesday evening in which a boy open fire on two of his brothers, then killed himself.
The shooting, for reasons that remain unknown, happened at the Sugar Lane Mobile Home Park in Hudson as the three Pimentel brothers were getting ready for dinner.
Detectives say that about 6:30 p.m., 12-year-old Kevin shot and killed his 6-year-old brother, Brady. Then he shot his older brother Trevor in the leg, before taking his own life.
When Pasco County deputies arrived they could hear Trevor screaming, "I've been shot. I've been shot," said Sheriff Chris Nocco.
"This was one of those scenes you never want to see," Nocco said.
The sheriff refused to release many details about the crime, including the motive and where the boy got the gun, because he said deputies haven't told the mother yet.
"The mother is going through a living hell right now," Nocco said. "She doesn't yet know all the details. She can't handle that right now. She emotionally and physically can't handle that right now."
Investigators say they have had no previous interactions with the family.
The boys' mother, Helen Campochiaro, was not home at the time. She was working one of two jobs to support her family, neighbors said.
"She's a single mom, and her family is everything to her. Her boys are her world. And they were also loving," said neighbor Kara Butz.
Campochiaro had been in a car wreck recently, but didn't even go to the hospital because she had to work, Nocco said.
On her LinkedIn page, Campochiaro says she bakes cakes for special occasions from her home. She describes herself as a "Punky Jersey Girl" and a "proud single mom of 4 amazing boys."
The Pasco County School District had grief counselors on hand at Hudson elementary, middle and high schools Thursday, according to a release from the district. Hudson is about about 30 miles north of Tampa on Florida's Gulf Coast.
Crisis counselors visited Kevin's seventh-grade gifted classes at Hudson MIddle School to break the news to his classmates. Earlier, the sheriff said Kevin was 13 years old, but at the news conference he said his birthday was later this month.
Kevin attended Chasco Middle School last year, so the district also offered assistance to his former teachers and classmates.
A third crisis team was later dispatched to Fox Hollow Elementary School, where the two younger brothers had also attended classes.
Brady's first-grade class was told that something "very sad" had happened to him, school spokeswoman Linda Cobbe said in an e-mail. Several middle school students who knew Kevin went home with their parents, and a couple of teachers at the elementary school where the older boys had attended went home to be with their families, Cobbe said.
"It is, it's very tragic," said Pasco Schools Superintendent Kurt Browning. "But we are working to heal — heal families and students."
Trevor Pimentel is a ninth-grader taking virtual classes at Hudson High in the morning and attending he Marchman Technical College culinary academy in the afternoon, according to the district. Crisis teams were not sent to those schools.
Trevor remains in the hospital, and he is expected to recover. When deputies tried to talk to him, his heart rate spiked.
"You've got a 16-year-old who just saw something horrific, a living nightmare. I would never want anyone to be in his shoes. He's grieving right now. He just lost two brothers," Nocco said.
The family lived in the mobile home park off a dirt road. "We rarely see cops in the neighborhood. It's quiet here," said neighbor Kipp Coleman.
Investigators say there was an 18-year-old brother who also lived at the mobile home, but was gone at the time. His name has not been released.
Contributing: The Associated Press