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'Ninja' gang kill couple who cared for disabled children
Ed Harris14 Jul 2009
UP to eight people were involved in a deadly break-in at the home of a Florida couple known for adopting children with special needs.
Melanie and Byrd Billings were shot dead while nine of their children were home. One child fled to alert a neighbour. The break-in was captured by an extensive camera system that the couple used to watch over their children.
Several children saw the intruders but were not hurt, Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan said. The others were sleeping. The Billingses had a total of 16 children.
Mr Morgan said robbery was one of "numerous motives", but did not say what the others might have been. Police arrested three people after the killings and say up to five more may have been involved. Two men described as "persons of interest" were being interviewed yesterday.
Video footage captured men in "ninja garb" entering the back of the home through an unlocked door. The tape also showed a red van dropping off three suspects at the front door of the nine-bedroom home west of Pensacola. Mr Morgan said: "I think you'll find this particularly chilling and here's why: We have a team that enters at the rear of the home and another that enters at the front."
He said the mastermind of the break-in was among the three people in custody. Labourer Wayne Coldiron, 41, turned himself in and Leonard Gonzalez Jr, 35, was arrested in nearby Santa Rosa County. Both were charged with murder and home invasion.
Gonzalez's father, Leonard Gonzalez Sr, 56, has been held on a charge of evidence tampering.
