According to police, a Florida woman shot her children’s father multiple times with a 9 mm handgun while saying, “Please, let the monster die,” as he picked them up from day care.
“You got to die,” Mindy Osteen, 34, told her children’s father, Christopher Jones, as she shot him on Friday at Auntie Lili’s Daycare in Starke while he was picking up their two children, according to her arrest report. Starke is in northern Florida, approximately 45 miles southwest of Jacksonville.
At least six other children and two employees were inside the daycare when the shooting occurred in the evening.
“Chris, you can’t kill [redacted],” Osteen allegedly said after the shooting. It wasn’t immediately clear who Osteen was referring to. According to a Law&Crime review of the affidavit, the children’s names appear to have been redacted.
“I’m not killing anyone,” Jones responded.
Witnesses told cops that Jones was attempting to load the children into his vehicle when Osteen attacked him with an Arex Delta 9 mm pistol she had hidden in her backpack. According to the arrest report, security footage shows Osteen lurking nearby before opening fire on Jones.
“[Jones] puts in the car seats in the back seat of his vehicle as Mindy follows and watches,” according to the complaint. “Christopher is sitting in the driver’s seat, with the driver’s door open. Mindy walks directly up to Christopher and fires three shots before backing up slightly. She then walks back up to Christopher, firing two more shots. “Christopher can be heard screaming.”
When Bradford County Sheriff’s deputies arrived on the scene, Smith allegedly informed them that Osteen was responsible for the shooting.
“I’m right here, y’all,” Osteen told the deputies, according to the arrest report. “I done it in self-defense.”
There have been no details released about what Osteen meant. Smith was rushed to a local hospital, where he died of his injuries.
Osteen was being held on charges of first-degree murder, cruelty to a child, possession of a weapon, and theft. She was being held on Monday without bond.
