28-03-2025
Teacher mourns boy killed in Pembroke Park domestic shooting; sister recovering
Phiinyx Solomon is smart beyond her 8 years. Her older brother, 11-year-old Xion Solomon, was nearing middle school. His principal was just about to order his cap and gown.
Principal Eboni Grant-Burts said she last saw the two children at her faith-based school, ECB Educational K-8 Center in Hollywood, on March 20, the last day before their Spring Break.
On Wednesday evening, she saw a four-story apartment building in Pembroke Park on the news where a domestic-related shooting unfolded. Grant-Burts said she recognized it — the building where she had many times before dropped off Xion and Phiinyx, who lived on the fourth floor.
'I remember the fourth floor. I just hoped when I saw it, that it wasn't them,' she said. 'I just hoped that it wasn't them.'
Shortly before 8 p.m. Wednesday, Stephen McKenzie, a 34-year-old man who had two young children with Xion and Phiinyx's mother, shot everyone in the apartment, then shot himself, according to the Broward Sheriff's Office.
Four of them were killed: Xion and his mother, Julie Cruz, 32, along with Cruz's two boys whose father was McKenzie, 2-year-olds Nova and Emery McKenzie. The only ones to survive were Phiinyx and McKenzie, the Sheriff's Office said.
Phiinyx was taken to the hospital in serious condition after the shooting, the Sheriff's Office said, while McKenzie was in critical condition.
Kelvin Solomon, Xion and Phiinyx's father, told WPLG-Ch. 10 on Friday afternoon that his daughter is 'fighting for her life right now,' though her condition had improved. Solomon told the news station that his son was shot when trying to protect his mother and his siblings.
Xion, a fifth-grade student, showed leadership qualities and looked out for his teacher, Grant-Burts said. She'd often misplace her cellphone, then find it sitting next to her glasses. He would remark, 'Really Mrs. Burts?' she recalled. It was his 'favorite saying,' she said.
Both he and his younger sister were learning Spanish, excelled in the classroom and were well-liked among their tight-knight school community, she said. While only in the third grade, Phiinyx was scoring at a fourth- and fifth-grade level.
Often when Phiinyx finished her work, Grant-Burts said the girl went around to other students' desks to help or check on them.
'I would look at her, she'd look at me, and she'd get up and put up her finger like, 'One moment, they've almost got it.' And then she'd go back to her seat,' she said. 'Who could argue with that?'
The children were happy and showed no indication of issues going on at home, the principal said.
'They were great kids, both of them,' she said. 'Any school, any teacher, any principal, would want to have children like that. A million of them in their school. They were just that great.'
Mom, 3 kids shot to death in Broward apartment; 8-year-old girl survives
Neighbors in the apartment building told the South Florida Sun Sentinel that there were no signs of domestic issues between McKenzie and Cruz, who with their children always appeared to be a happy family. Deon McKenzie, whose former husband is McKenzie's father, said the man she knew was quiet and loved children.
'That's what really gets me. He really loved kids … I would probably think he would have spared a kid's life, but I don't know what went wrong,' she told the Sun Sentinel on Thurdsay.
Pembroke Park Police did not have any records of previous calls for service within the last few years to the address where McKenzie, Cruz and the children lived, nor any documentation of past incidents involving McKenzie, according to Cynthia Garcia-Lima, the town clerk.
McKenzie is in custody at the hospital, the Sheriff's Office previously said. Detectives are still investigating what led up to the shooting.
