A recently divorced father of two who is said to have suffered depression posted a photo of him and his two children just an hour before shooting dead his kids and then turning the gun on himself.
Humberto Christian Tovar, 41, posted a smiling, happy picture of his two children Valeria, 12, and Matias, nine, and himself in the car on Facebook just under an hour before the fatal shooting in Miami Lakes, Florida, that left the children’s mother screaming as she tried to resuscitate her kids and shocking a normally quiet community on Tuesday evening.
Tovar, an avid cyclist, was said to be suffering from bipolar depression after he and wife Jessica Forero Cardona divorced in August after 12 years together.
‘He was dealing with bipolarity. He didn’t take his pills. He never took care of it. He never wanted to take medication therapy,’ his mother, Luz Kuznitz, told Local 10 News. She said her son biked quite often to help with his mental illness and to relieve some of his stress.
Tovar, who had been working at City Bikes in Aventura for six months, would often post pictures of him cycling on his Facebook page.
More shockingly, Kuznitz had asked her son if he ‘would ever be able to harm Valeria and Matias?’
He told his mother at the time: ‘No, never, absolutely not.’
Humberto Christian Tovar, 41, posted a smiling, happy picture of his two children Valeria, 12, and Matias, nine, and himself in the car on Facebook just under an hour before he would fatally shoot his kids and turn the gun on himself
The father-of-two was suffering from bipolar depression and didn’t take his medication, his mother said (pictured in June 2021)
‘I am going to miss my grandchildren,’ Kuznitz told Local 10 News.
The children’s mother found her children and ex-husband by a lake in Miami Lakes around 9pm on Tuesday. She could be heard screaming on a nearby Ring doorbell as she desperately tried to resuscitate her lifeless son.
Cardona became worried when she hadn’t heard from her children, who had school the next day. Tovar had picked up the two children from the mother’s home, according to Miami-Dade police.
She then reportedly tracked her family to the lake at around 9pm on the 6400 block of Miami Lakes Drive, near a Publix supermarket. The mom found all three bodies on the grass next to a concrete bench on a section of the lake facing Miami Lakes Drive, according to police
Just six months before the shooting on Tuesday, his mother Luz Kuznitz had asked her son if he ‘would ever be able to harm Valeria and Matias’ and he had told her ‘no, never, absolutely not’ (Pictured in July 2017)
Tovar and his wife Jessica Forero Cardona divorced in August as being together for 12 years (Pictured in June 2021)
The two children (pictured in January 2018) had been picked up by their father earlier that day
Their mother became worried after she didn’t hear from them as it got late and they had school tomorrow (Pictured in January 2014)
The Miami-Dade Police Director Alfredo ‘Freddy’ Ramirez III confirmed the deaths on Twitter, writing: ‘Earlier this evening, officers responded to the scene of a shooting where a father senselessly shot and killed his 12-year-old daughter and nine-year-old son before killing himself.’
A GoFundMe has been set up for Cardona to help afford the funeral cost and mental healthcare she will need after ‘such a devastating experience.’
‘Jessica did everything she could to save her children,’ Kendaly Alvarez, who started the GoFundMe said. ‘Now, she’s left with the aftermath and pain of such a devastating experience.’
It has raised $1,585 of it’s $25,000 goal as of Thursday morning.
Tovar (pictured in February) was an avid cyclist and used it to help alleviate his mental health and stress
He worked at City Bike for the last six months (Pictured in January 2022)
A nearby resident Madga Peña, whose Ring doorbell picked up on the mother’s cries, said she and her son started running toward the lake when they heard the woman in distress.
‘I just opened the door and I ran,’ she told WSVN. ‘My son ran behind me. He didn’t even have shoes. I ran across the grass and when I got there I saw the lady like on top of the little boy. I couldn’t see the dad or the daughter because of the darkness at first.’
The community is a mixture of townhouse developments and commercial property.
Police were seen on the scene near the lake in Miami Lakes on Tuesday evening
Vans and police cars lined up near the lake where the three bodies were found
‘I started looking and I saw the man’s body there and I saw the little girl’s body there, and the mom was trying to do compressions on the little girl, she even pulled her body towards the son’s body to bring them closer and she herself started doing chest compressions on them,’ Peña told NBC 6 Miami.
‘At that point, I was crying already, I think I went into shock cause I was just like freaked out, I don’t know.’
A resident of the area, Madga Peña (left), said she and her son ran toward the lake after hearing the distraught mother screaming. Tovar’s mother Luz Kuznitz (right) said she is ‘going to miss my grandchildren’ and that her son ‘never took care of’ his bipolar disorder
Ring camera captures Pena and her son dashing to the grisly scene
Peña, who also helped with chest compressions, also said she saw the gun lying next to the father’s body, leaving her in shock ‘for a good hour.’
‘I think I cried for like an hour and I was just shaking and I came inside the house. I think I was up until like three o’clock in the morning because I was there looking at everything and wondering how this happened because this has never happened here.’
Investigators were later seen looking under a tarp that covered a body on the scene. Police cruisers were also seen in a nearby Publix’s parking lot.
Police are reporting it as a ‘domestic incident,’ according to CBS 4 Miami. The motive has not been released.
DailyMail.com has contacted the Miami-Dade Police for comment.
