Miramar boy calls 911 in a panic after his mother is fatally shot

When an 11-year-old boy called 911tosummonan ambulance to his Miramar home, he didn’t seem to realize his mother had been fatally shot.

“There was an accident,” he said. “I don’t know what’s happening.” The boy added, “It’s anemergency.… Please come.”

When his father, Brian Symonette, got on the line, he sounded out of breath, panicked, distraught. “She grabbed the gun when we were fighting and it went off,” Symonette, 43, said. “I don’t know if she’s breathing. … Please send an ambulance. … This is a disaster.”

A recording of the anxious phone exchange between the boy, his father and the dispatcher was released Tuesday, revealing clues to the sequence of events that led up to and followed the shooting death of Lisa Symonette.

Brian Symonette “appeared to be highly intoxicated” when police arrived to the Symonette home in the 3400 block of Southwest 130th Avenue a little before 10 a.m. Saturday, a police report said.

Lisa Symonette’s body was found lying on a twin bed in a spare bedroom. She had a large hole in her forehead that appeared to be a gunshotwound.

Blood had pooled onto the pillow beneath her head. Shewore a nightgown and a hairnet, the report said.

Next to her lay a .44-caliber revolver containing five live rounds and a spent bullet casing. There was no sign of a struggle, according to the report. She appeared to have been lying down when she was shot, the report said.

The boy did not witness the shooting but told police that he had heard his father cursing at his mother.

Lisa Symonette, 51, had thrown her husband a birthday party at a nearby hall the night before. A witness told police the couple had argued about 2 a.m., and Brian Symonette left the party.

At a court hearing Tuesday afternoon , Broward County Judge John Fry ordered that the boy remain for the next 48 hours in the custody of his paternal grandmother, Stephanie Symonette, in Hallandale Beach.

The boy’s long-term custody will be taken up at a 10 a.m. Thursday hearing.