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Eva Diaz: Heroic 6-Year-Old Shot In Head By Dad Runs For Help As Parents Die In Murder-Suicide

By Jonathan Vankin
Published on: 12:15 PST, Aug 23, 2016

Eva Diaz, a remarkable and heroic little 6-year-old girl, survived the ultimate horror early Sunday morning when her dad shot her in the head, killed her mom, and then turned the gun on himself and pulled the trigger, leaving an entire community devastated and baffled, saying that the young couple with the happy child showed no signs of anything wrong leading up to the devastating murder-suicide, according to a report by WJAX TV News.

The horrifying killings happened at around 1 a.m. at an apartment complex where the Diaz family resided, in Brunswick, Georgia.

The dad, 24-year-old Jesus Diaz, seemed happy and exhibited what co-workers called his usual upbeat personality on Saturday night, according to co-workers who worked his evening shift with him at a local resort on St. Simons Island off the Georgia coast.

But when Diaz got home to his daughter Eva and 21-year-old wife Emiko Diaz, for reasons that friends and acquaintances say they are at a loss to understand, he shot his wife dead in their bed with a .45 caliber handgun, shot his little girl in the head, and then killed himself on the same bed where his wife lie mortally wounded, according to a report by The Brunswick News.

Miraculously, little Eva Diaz, bleeding badly from her gunshot wound, still somehow escaped, crawling out of her family’s apartment and pounding on a neighbor’s door just after 1 a.m.

The neighbors took in the badly wounded girl and immediately called 911.

“Officers arrived and found a six year old child with a gun shot wound to the head. The child had sought help at a neighbors apartment,” the Glynn County Police explained on the department’s Facebook page. “The preliminary investigation reveals Jesus Diaz shot Eva and Emiko and then shot himself.”

By Monday afternoon, Eva was reported to be “resting comfortably” in a Savannah hospital where she was admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit.

“Her prognosis is good,” said Reverend Alan Akridge, rector at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, where Emiko Diaz and her family were lifelong parishioners. “It just defies explanation. There’s no understanding how or why this could have happened.”

“They were both good people,” said family friend Mariano Morales. “I don’t know what happened.”

“This tragedy caused significant impact and not only at St. Mark’s,” Akridge added. “The whole community is suffering … and no one saw it coming.”

Jesus Diaz, known as “Alexis” to his friends and family, had planned to return to school, while Emiko graduated in May from the College of Coastal Georgia, majoring in health informatics. She recently completed an internship at South Georgia Health System where she focused on management of medical records.

“Emiko was so upbeat and so energetic,” Lee McKinley, one of her professors, told The Brunswick News. “But her little girl was her life, her pride and joy. Her family — her mother, sisters and brother — were so supportive of each other.”

At least according to early reports, the couple had no known history of serious trouble or domestic violence, and neighbors were at a loss to explain why Jesus Diaz would want to kill his family and himself.

“I’m shocked just like everybody else is, especially them, nobody would have thought it,” neighbor James Sheppard told First Coast News.

Sheppard described Jesus Diaz as “a very loving father.”

“They’re a quiet couple,” the neighbor said. “Very loving parents. I don’t know what happened to them.”

Friends held a candlelight vigil on Monday evening for Emiko Diaz, a young woman described by a family friend as “the most beautiful person in the world that you were able to see. Always smiling, willing to give and always being there even if she had problems.”

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Police in Glynn County say that detectives are now working to piece together what happened to cause the tragic outburst of violence that killed Jesus and Emiko Diaz, and left their little daughter Eva shot in the head — but alive.

[Images via GoFundMe, Family Photo]

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