ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — The Orange County Sheriff's Office on Wednesday released several 911 calls made after four small children discovered their 29-year-old mother's body in their home in December.
Investigators said Nelonza Pugh, 29, fatally shot his wife, Brooke Jenkins-Pugh, Dec. 19 at their Blackburn Court home near the University of Central Florida.
Deputies said surveillance footage showed Pugh pinning Jenkins-Pugh against a wall before shooting her three times and calmly leaving the home.
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The woman's 12-year-old daughter said she called 911 after she woke up to get ready for school.
"My mom -- she's on the floor dead," the girl said.
An emergency dispatcher asked the child from where her mother was bleeding.
"I don't know, miss," she said. "I just see gunshots. I see bullets on the floor, and she's bleeding, miss."
The dispatcher asked the girl if she knows who could have shot her mother.
"I don't know, but I think my stepdad," she said.
Fifteen hours after the shooting, two of Pugh's cousins called 911 to report that he was in an SUV with their mother and their grandmother.
"They're on Lake Underhill Road by the 7-Eleven and the Popeye's," one of the cousins said.
"There is a weapon in the car, I believe," the other cousin said.
The cousins said they were tracking the vehicle by monitoring the location of one of the women's cellphones.
Detectives say this man left his children behind after killing his wife. We're reviewing the call the kids made as they found their mother that morning. Another Only On @WFTV today. pic.twitter.com/nWiQLTwLk3
— Steve Barrett (@TVSteveBarrett) January 30, 2019
More than a dozen deputies closed in on Pugh near Dean Road, where he was arrested.
Pugh was booked into the Orange County Jail on charges of first-degree murder, but Channel 9 learned Wednesday that prosecutors will pursue a second-degree murder charge instead.
Officials said Pugh had previously been arrested on 27 charges, ranging from drugs to weapons.
They said he had been arrested two years ago on an attempted murder charge, but court records said the charge was dropped.
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