Three dead, including child, in standoff at Deerfield Beach Highland Woods RV Park

DEERFIELD BEACH, Fla. — Hours after a violent standoff left three people dead, a 9-year-old boy among them, people living in the community where the incident took place were hesitant to speak about the matter.

Residents of the Highland Woods RV Park indicated they were cleared out of their portable homes by police and had to wait out the drama inside the park's card room until about 2 a.m.

Most of the park's residents are from Quebec, Canada, said Bruno Halle.

"It's always been quiet and nice," said Halle, is also from Quebec. "People come down for four or five months for the winter."

Halle said he didn't know the residents of the Cayman Monaco RV where the shooting occurred.

But when the standoff that began at the RV park Thursday evening finally ended early Friday, three people were dead including a 9-year-old boy. Two others, a woman and a 7-year-old boy, were badly hurt.

According to the Broward Sheriff's Office, the ordeal began shortly before 6:30 p.m. Thursday with an emergency call about a shooting at the park at 900 Northeast 48th Street.

Arriving deputies found a man on the ground outside a recreational vehicle. Inside the nearby RV, a man told the deputies he was holding a woman hostage and would kill her if they approached.

SWAT Teams, Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue paramedics and other emergency responders began to stage at and near the scene.

Deputies were unable to persuade the man making the threats inside the RV to release the hostage and surrender peacefully. Eventually, SWAT paramedics were able to get to the shooting victim outside the RV, but he was already dead. According to investigators, the shooting victim and the man barricaded inside the RV did not know each other.

There was a key development about 7:30 p.m. when a woman who was not hurt emerged from the RV. According to BSO, she told detectives that the suspect's wife and two sons were inside with him.

For the next several hours, SWAT Team members tried to make contact with the barricaded man, but were unsuccessful.

Finally, about 1:30 a.m. Friday, more than seven hours after the incident began, the BSO SWAT Team assisted by the Coral Springs Police Department's SWAT Team entered the RV.

Inside, they found the barricaded man and a 9-year-old boy dead. The badly hurt woman and 7-year-old boy were taken to area hospitals in critical condition. The nature of their injuries was not disclosed.

The identities of the people involved have not been released and authorities were continuing to investigate what sparked the deadly incident.