▶ Watch Video: Florida K-9 deputies arrest man accused in double murders
Deputies’ bodycam video captured the dramatic moment Thursday when two officers — and their K9s — arrested a double murder suspect in a wooded area near Florida’s Gulf Coast.
Angel Gabriel Cuz-Choc was found hiding less than two miles from where his girlfriend, Amalia Coc Choc de Pec, 36, and her daughter, 4-year-old Estrella Pec Coc, were found dead less than 24 hours before.
Shortly after his arrest, Cuz-Choc confessed to both murders, officials said.
The three had arrived from Guatemala about three months ago, reports CBS affiliate WTSP. The victims were found stabbed to death Wednesday afternoon at a mobile home in Dover, Florida, according to the station.
Authorities were called after the little girl was found dead inside the home — with her mother found in the backyard, lying “in her own puddle of blood,” according to Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister. Investigators believed a bloody handprint, found on the side of the mobile home, came from the woman fighting for her life.
“I am taken back by the level of pure evil that has transpired when our suspect brutally murdered an innocent woman and a young child,” Chronister said at a news conference.
Officials said that while Cuz-Choc was dating the woman, the girl was not his biological child.
Investigators worked all through Wednesday night to locate the suspect and found a bloodied shirt they were “confident was his,” Chronister said.
“His efforts were no match for our team of dedicated detectives who left no stone unturned in their search,” he said in a press release. “There wasn’t a square inch within this perimeter that our deputies did not have covered.”
Cuz-Choc is currently facing two charges of murder in the first degree for “the heinous and vile murders” — with more charges likely, officials say.
Dover is about 20 miles east of Tampa.
