Odalys Maria Bancroft was a dedicated and accomplished nurse, a beloved mother, and the director of regulatory affairs at Jackson Health System in Miami, where she had worked since 2015. Her son, Theodore Cuoto, was a 3-year-old Hispanic boy who was just a month away from celebrating his fourth birthday in July.
On the morning of June 7, 2024, a little before 7:40 a.m., Odalys and Theodore were in their minivan in the drive-thru line of a Chase Bank ATM. The bank was located in a shopping plaza at the intersection of Bird Road and Southwest 152nd Avenue in Southwest Miami-Dade, Florida. As they waited, a man in a silver SUV pulled up alongside their vehicle. He got out of his truck and opened fire on the minivan with a long gun, striking and killing both Odalys and her young son, who was in the backseat.
After the shooting, the gunman returned to his own vehicle, sat in the passenger seat, and fatally shot himself.
An on-duty Miami-Dade Police Department sergeant from the Kendall District was driving nearby when he heard the gunshots. He responded immediately to the scene, where he discovered the bodies of Odalys and Theodore inside their minivan and the deceased gunman in his SUV. Witnesses at the scene had also alerted authorities.
Miami-Dade police later identified the shooter as 41-year-old Michael Andres Pineda Lozano. Investigators confirmed that Lozano was Bancroft's ex-boyfriend. According to her family, Bancroft was divorced and had been trying to end her recent relationship with Lozano, going so far as to seek a restraining order against him.
The community was left devastated by the loss. Colleagues at Jackson Health System remembered the 43-year-old as a kind and talented professional who had left an indelible mark on the organization. Family members created GoFundMe pages to help with the funeral expenses for both mother and son. The case is being investigated as a murder-suicide, and as of the identification of the shooter in June 2024, the primary suspect is deceased.
