William Conway Broyles, the “happily married” longtime music director of Hodges Boulevard Presbyterian Church in Jacksonville, Florida, stunned his neighbors and church when he confessed to fatally shooting his wife, daughter and one of his two adult sons in their home Wednesday morning — but told police he was “too scared” to kill himself.
“It doesn’t make sense when you look at the whole circumstance of what we believe happened,” Nassau County Sheriff Bill Leeper told The Florida Times-Union. “It’s just a senseless act. When he was asked why he just didn’t shoot himself, he said he was too scared to do that, which is crazy.”
Broyles, 57, reportedly called 911 at about 7:15 a.m. to alert police about what he did at the family home in the Spring Lake Estates community.
“The suspect was lying down in the driveway unarmed, waiting on them,” Leeper said. “… Later on, he told us that he shot each victim multiple times just to make sure they didn’t suffer.”
Police discovered the minister’s wife, Candace Lynn Broyles, 57, dead in the living room while his daughter, Cara Lynn Broyles, 27, was fatally shot in her bedroom as she was waking up, The Florida Times-Union said.
His son, Aaron Christopher Broyles, 28, was found shot dead in his bedroom and his door was broken in, police said. “He (Broyles) then went back to get another gun, came back and shot his son again,” Leeper said. The case remains under investigation, but police said they have a “pretty good idea” of what happened without elaborating further. READ MORE
