CALLAHAN, Fla. — A man is in custody after shooting and killing his wife and two adult children inside a home in Callahan Wednesday morning, Nassau County Sheriff Bill Leeper said.
Leeper said William Conway Broyles is now in the Nassau County Jail, facing three counts of second-degree murder.
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Leeper called the case “just tragic.”
“It’s crazy. It just doesn’t make sense,” he said at a Wednesday afternoon news conference.
Deputies responded to Deer Run Road located in the Spring Lakes development. Broyles was lying in the driveway, unarmed, when deputies arrived, Leeper said. Inside the house, deputies found two women and a man shot to death.
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Leeper said Broyles called 911 to notify authorities of the shooting.
Leeper identified the victims on Wednesday afternoon as Broyles’ wife, 57-year-old Candace L. Broyles, his daughter, 27-year-old Cora Lynn Broyles and his son, 28-year-old Aaron Christopher Broyles.
Broyles told deputies he shot each victim multiple times to make sure they didn’t suffer, Leeper said.
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According to Leeper, Broyles shot his wife in the living room, shot his daughter in her bedroom as she was waking up and “busted through the door” of his son’s bedroom and shot him.
Broyles went to get another gun and shot his son again, Leeper said. When deputies arrived, they found a small-caliber Smith and Wesson handgun on the bed in the master bedroom and another small-caliber Smith and Wesson handgun on the master bathroom counter, according to Broyles’ arrest report.
When deputies asked Broyles why he didn’t just shoot himself, he said he was too scared to do it, Leeper said.
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Leeper said Cora Broyles may have had autism.
Leeper said there have been no prior calls of service to the home and no history of domestic or anger issues.
The sheriff also said that deputies “have a pretty good idea of what happened” but that they are still investigating.
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Action News Jax has learned that Broyles was a church musician for at least 23 years at Hodges Boulevard Presbyterian Church in Jacksonville.
According to the church’s website, he was “happily married for 30 years” to his wife Candace. We also learned that he has at least one other surviving child.
Deputies have not said where that person was during the shooting.
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