Overview
- The shooting took place Saturday night at a residence in the 2000 block of SE Oxmoor Terrace in Port St. Lucie, where officers found a woman with gunshot wounds who was airlifted to a hospital and later pronounced dead.
- Officers also found a 50-year-old man dead at the scene from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, and investigators are treating the case as a domestic-related murder–suicide.
- Police identified the victim as 50-year-old Elizabeth Ortega and the shooter as 50-year-old Ralph Varela Sr., and public records show Varela had prior convictions dating to 2014 and 2017.
- Investigators recovered home surveillance footage that shows Ortega trying to flee and say evidence points to use of an AR-style .223-caliber rifle; detectives are processing evidence and awaiting final Medical Examiner results.
- The house and nearby area remain an active crime scene with a heavy police presence, motorists are asked to avoid the neighborhood, and officials provided crisis resources such as the 988 lifeline while the probe continues.