In a tragic turn of events, nine-year-old Carlos Rodriguez of Norcross, Georgia, was found deceased on May 8, 2024, the victim of a fatal shooting. The young boy, along with his two older sisters, 13-year-old Arianny Rodriguez and 11-year-old Chadal Rodriguez, were discovered inside a parked car at Lucky Shoals Park in a case investigated as a murder-suicide. The male child was found in the vehicle with his deceased siblings.
The children's mother, Karina Rodriguez, had allowed her ex-boyfriend, 56-year-old Jose Plasencia, to take the three children to get something to eat while she was at a local hospital with a younger child she shared with him. This was the last time she saw her three older children alive. A Gwinnett County police officer on a routine patrol discovered the vehicle parked on a pedestrian trail in the early morning hours. Upon investigation, the officer found the bodies of the three children and Plasencia inside the car.
Investigators determined that Plasencia, who was not the father of the three slain children, had shot them before turning the gun on himself. Plasencia was identified as the sole suspect in the killings. The motive for the devastating act remained unclear to investigators. The deaths of Carlos and his sisters prompted an outpouring of grief from the community, with their mother expressing her profound loss and seeking to return her children to her native Dominican Republic for burial.
