Background: Raul Vazquez, in white (Orange County Sheriff's Office). Inset: Daryl Hill (Facebook).
A Florida father who had just dropped off his daughter on the first day of school was gunned down while trying to stop a fight between a couple after a car crash, cops say.
Raul Lionel Vazquez, 26, is charged with second-degree murder in the death of 56-year-old Daryl Hill, the Orange County Sheriff's Office said.
The incident unfolded Tuesday morning near Plymouth Sorrento and West Ponkan roads in Apopka, about 20 miles northwest of Orlando. Witnesses told deputies they saw a pickup truck crash into an SUV. Vazquez, who had no shirt or shoes on, and a woman exited the pickup truck and started arguing, an arrest affidavit obtained by Law&Crime said. He was in her face and yelling at her, deputies wrote.
Hill was riding by on his bicycle and tried to separate the two, per cops. Vazquez, Hill and the woman began fighting and fell into some bushes. They emerged from the bushes and Hill started to run away while Vazquez grabbed something from the truck.
It was a shotgun.
The victim was running with his hands up, screaming "Help!" A shot rang out. Hill fell face first to the ground.
Paramedics rushed Hill to the hospital, where he died.
Cops interviewed Vazquez and the woman he was arguing with. She claimed Hill was the aggressor and pushed Vazquez. When investigators pressed her for details, she requested an attorney, the affidavit said.
Vazquez also said Hill attacked him first but had "many different accounts of the incident," deputies wrote. He said he had martial arts and wrestling training and was "getting the better of" the victim. Vazquez admitted that he fired the shotgun.
Hill's wife told local NBC affiliate WESH that her husband had just dropped off their 10-year-old daughter on the first day of school and was riding his bike home when the incident occurred. She was tracking his location to make sure he got home safely.
"When his phone remained in the same position for an hour and he didn't answer, I went home to check on him, and I saw the crime scene unit. I didn't see the scene, thank God, but I saw the detectives and confirmed my worst nightmare," she said in an interview with the TV station.
She said she was "very, very angry."
"Senseless, senseless," she said.
Hill also had two adult children. Suzanne Hill said he loved to help others, which is what he was doing when he was killed.
"That's how he would want to be remembered, and for loving his family unconditionally. Unconditionally," she said. "He was just such an incredible man. He'd be making you laugh right now."
Vazquez is in the Orange County Jail without bond.
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