The 11-year-old girl who was shot dead by her father before he turned the gun on himself in a horror murder-suicide has been identified.
Loved ones have described Angela Ng as a happy, active little girl who adored by her parents and loved to dance and practice martial arts.
The family’s world was turned upside down when Angela became terminally ill from cancer in her femur, according to relatives, friends and neighbors.
Angela’s life came to a devastating end on Monday when her father, Kenbian Ng, fatally shot her before killing himself at the family’s home in Davie, Florida.
The girl’s mother was cooking breakfast when she heard the gunfire ring out and ran in to find both her daughter and husband shot.
Angela Ng has been identified as the 11-year-old girl who was shot and killed by her father before he turned the gun on himself at their home in Davie, Florida, on Monday
Angela’s happy childhood is captured in dozens of photos posted on social media by her parents. The family’s world was turned upside down when Angela became terminally ill from cancer in her femur WHEN, according to relatives, friends and neighbors
Angela’s life came to a devastating end on Monday when her father fatally shot her before killing himself at the family’s home in Davie. Officials are seen bringing the girl’s body out
Davie police spokesman Lt Mark Leone confirmed that the incident is being investigated as a murder-suicide.
‘While we were speaking to the mother, we were told that the child has a debilitating, terminal illness, which is a possibility for why this tragic incident occurred,’ Leone said.
‘It was a devastating terminal illness. She was not going to get any better. It is such a tragic situation, a terrible situation.’
The Broward Medical Examiner’s Office on Tuesday confirmed that the victims were Angela and Kenbian.
Angela’s happy childhood was captured in dozens of photos posted on social media by her proud parents.
Many of the photos showed the family on vacations around the world while others showed Angela receiving a diploma for martial arts and being kissed by a dolphin.
Angela’s mother was cooking breakfast when she heard gunfire ring out in another room. The family are pictured in a photo posted on Facebook in 2013
Angela shows off her martial arts diploma in a photo her dad posted to Facebook in 2016
Everything changed when she was diagnosed with cancer and began undergoing chemotherapy as her health declined rapidly.
Relatives said Angela was scheduled to have her leg amputated on August 28, less than three weeks after she was killed.
Miriam Casanova, whose husband Jorge is the cousin of Angela’s mother, described the devastating toll the girl’s illness took on her parents in an interview with the Sun Sentinel.
Casanova said she and her husband had been wanting to call and check in on the family but found it difficult to find the words to console Angela’s parents.
Recounting the last time she spoke to Angela’s father a few months ago, she said: ‘He couldn’t talk. He just cried.’
Kenbian’s LinkedIn profile shows he worked as a VP of Operations at Watsco, a distributor of air conditioning and refrigeration equipment based in Miami.
Angela smiles as she swims with dolphins during a family vacation in 2014
The Ng family is seen on a beach in a photo posted to Facebook in 2015. Relatives have described the devastating toll Angela’s cancer diagnosis took on her parents
It remains unclear what led Kenbian to take his daughter’s life and his own. Lt Leone said that the mother was absolutely stunned and devastated by the horrific act.
Witnesses outside the home on Monday described hearing the mother wailing as police arrived.
‘I heard the mother come right through my yard. They picked her up, put her in the car, and she screamed a noise like I knew I’ve heard before,’ neighbor Charlene Wells told WSVN.
‘She was very upset. Being the mother of a child that was killed in a car accident and how painful it is, I can imagine what they’re going through now. It’s awful. I feel bad for her. I really do.’
Neighbors Thelma and George Napolitano, who have known the Ng family since Angela was a baby, said they never could have seen this coming.
‘To lose your husband and your child, terrible,’ Thelma told WSVN.
The Napolitanos said Angela’s mother recently told them that the little girl was very sick.
‘She said something happened to Angela. She’s in the hospital, and I don’t know when she’s coming home,’ Thelma recalled.
‘It’s been a terrible shock,’ George said of the double shooting.
He said Kenbian was ‘a gentleman’ who would always check on his neighbors to make sure they were okay when bad weather swept through the area.
Authorities are seen wheeling Angela’s body out of her home on Monday after the killings
Investigators are seen outside the family’s home in Davie on Monday afternoon. A police spokesman confirmed that the case is being investigated as a murder-suicide
The murder-suicide was especially shocking given that its very rare for such acts to involve a caregiver.
‘It’s almost like a lightning strike,’ Scott Eliason, a psychologist at the Idaho Department of Corrections, told the Sun Sentinel.
‘Usually these things are impossible to predict and even if someone has every possible risk factor you can think of for violence or suicide, in the vast majority of cases, they don’t do this.’
Eliason said when murder-suicides involving caregivers do occur, it’s often because the perpetrator is worn out and depressed.
‘Sometimes you get what’s called caregiver burnout where you have a caregiver taking care of a terminally ill person and that stress leads to some kind of depression,’ he said.
‘They’re worried about abandoning the person, so that’s where the murder comes in.’
Lt Leone said the case is still being actively investigated. Dozens of officials remained at the crime scene for hours after Angela’s body was removed from the home.
- If you or anyone you know needs to talk, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is available 24/7 at 1-800-273-TALK (8255)
- For confidential support, call the Samaritans on 116123 or visit a local branch. See www.samaritans.org for details.
- For confidential support, call LIFELINE: 13 11 14 www.lifeline.org.au . Suicide Call Back Service: 1300 659 467