Florida authorities have identified the gunman who ended a two-day crime spree by killing his girlfriend before he was fatally shot by a sheriff’s deputy on a major interstate.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office said Thursday that 22-year-old Hugo Selva shot his 26-year-old girlfriend, Nicole Novak, in a shopping center parking lot Wednesday. He then pulled her into his SUV and drove the wrong way on Interstate 95 before crashing into several cars. A deputy then shot him.
Police have also identified Selva as a suspect in two nonfatal shootings on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Hugo Selva, 22, shot and killed the mother of his newborn daughter, 26-year-old Nicole Novak, outside a convenience store in Lake Worth, Florida Wednesday morning
Selva then put Novak’s body in his SUV and started driving the wrong way on Interstate-95 – causing multiple head-on crashes. Selva’s car is the damaged vehicle on the left
Selva’s and Novak’s Facebook pages show they had a daughter three months ago.
And Palm Beach County court records show Selva’s grandmother sought a restraining order against Selva in 2016, alleging domestic violence. The petition was later withdrawn.
Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said Selva shot Novak in a suburban shopping center parking lot and pulled her inside his Nissan Rogue before fleeing.
A clerk at My Neighborhood Grocery in Lake Worth says that the couple came in twice on Wednesday, the first time around 9am for cigarettes, and about 30 minutes later for money from the ATM.
Above, the convenience store in Lake Worth, Texas where the shooting happened on Wednesday
Selva left behind a gun in the parking lot where he shot his girlfriend
After they left the second time, the clerk says she heard a single shot and saw that the man had shot the woman in the head in the parking lot.
He then scooped up her body, put it in the SUV and took off – leaving his gun behind at the scene.
As deputies arrived at the shopping center, callers reported a southbound driver in the northbound lanes of nearby Interstate 95, Bradshaw said.
A deputy and a Florida Highway Patrol trooper arrived moments after the Rogue crashed into three vehicles and forced others off the road, causing injuries.
The officers rushed the Rogue and a trooper shocked the driver with his stun gun, but it didn’t work, Bradshaw said.
A bystander captured this video showing officers circling Selva’s video after the crash
A sheriff’s deputy shot Selva after he did something to make the officer fear for his life, an official said
Three people were injured in the traffic accidents on I-95, but all are expected to survive
By the time officers were able to get into the vehicle, both Selva and his girlfriend had died
It was later revealed that Selva’s own grandmother tried to get a protective order against him in 2016 when he threatened her with a butcher knife
A deputy then shot the driver, killing him, Bradshaw said. The woman was found dead inside the Rogue.
Three others drivers on the road were taken to the hospital for injuries but they are expected to survive.
The deputy who shot Selva has been placed on administrative leave, pending an investigation, as is department policy.
Officials say Selva is also a suspect in the non-fatal shootings of two area men on Tuesday and Wednesday. The first shooting happened Tuesday night at the Dutchman Motor Lodge in West Palm Beach. The victim in that incident has not been named. The second shooting happened earlier Wednesday morning at a home in Boynton Beach and involved 21-year-old Anthony Fonti.
The couple welcomed a baby girl just three months ago. It’s unclear where the baby was Wednesday morning during the chaos
Investigators still don’t have a motive for the crime.
Court records show that Selva’s grandmother Marilyn tried to get a protective order against him, saying he threatened her with a butcher knife in January 2016.
‘I’m in fear for my life as I am 77 years old,’ she wrote.
Marilyn also said that her grandson has a drug problem, that his girlfriend was on parole and that she doesn’t like them coming to her home.
‘Nicole and Hugo are draining me physically, emotionally and financially. He gets up close to my face and shouts at me, calls me Satan Bitch,’ Mariyln said in the records obtained by CBS 12.
Officers believe Selva was also responsible for a shooting at West Palm Beach motel (pictured) Tuesday night and one at a Boynton Beach home earlier Wednesday morning. The victims in both of those shootings were just injured
The man shot at this Boynton Beach home (garage seen above) was identified as 21-year-old Anthony Fonti
Department of Corrections records show that Novak spent time in prison for grand theft, burglary, cocaine possession and possession of a controlled substance. She was released in May 2016 after serving two years.
A friend of Hugo Selva told the Palm Beach Post that he had ‘much better days’ before he started dating Novak.
‘I can’t elaborate on how he changed. I want to remain positive,’ Robert Cecere said. ‘He was a new dad and there are a lot of stresses when you’re a young and new dad.’
Cecere said Selva had a normal, happy childhood.
‘He was always the funny guy. Good for a laugh. Loved my massage work and always made sure to get a treatment if I was in town,’ Cecere said in Facebook conversation. He said he last recalled speaking with Selva last fall.
Cecere spoke Wednesday night with Selva’s mother and says she was ‘beyond devastated’.