Police are searching for a man suspected of fatally shooting his wife and another man in a library parking lot in Vero Beach, Florida, authorities said Wednesday.
Vero Beach Police Chief David Currey identified the suspect Wednesday as Jesse Scott Ellis, 64, and said he killed his wife, Stacie Ellis Mason, and Danny Ooley, 56, in the parking lot of the Indian River County Main Library on Tuesday.
Surveillance footage shows Mason and Ooley — both Indian River County government employees — arriving separately before Mason got into Ooley’s car. Ellis then pulled in and fired multiple shots into the vehicle with an automatic weapon, Currey said.
Authorities believe the two were having an affair. Ooley was also married. Currey described the killings as a “targeted marital issue” and said Ellis is not believed to be a threat to the public.
“This was a crime of passion, two individuals that were apparently seeing each other for a period of time, and one husband being upset about it and potentially committing the crime that was committed,” the police chief said.
Ellis and his wife have been married for 13 years and have children together, according to Currey. They were “potentially separating or divorcing” and getting ready to sell their house, he added.
Kristi Ellis, one of Ellis’ daughters, said in a brief phone call that authorities told her family the news her stepmother’s killing this morning.
“I just lost my parents,” she said in a brief phone call. “I have no family.”
Mason and Ooley had met in the library parking lot previously, Currey said, adding he was not sure how long they had been seeing each other romantically.
Ooley’s wife could not immediately be reached for comment.
In a brief phone call, his mother, Mary Ooley, denied that her son was cheating on his wife and said his wife was not taking phone calls.
“He was not having an affair,” she said. “They were there checking for a job they were going to be doing.”
When asked to elaborate, Mary Ooley passed the phone to her husband, who declined to comment.
Ellis was also undergoing “professional services” in the weeks leading up to the shooting, according to the police chief, who would not elaborate.
Immediately after the shooting, Ellis drove to nearby South Beach Park, abandoned his car, went into the ocean fully clothed and swam about 900 yards offshore, Currey added.
The police chief said that local fire department rescue services personnel drove out to Ellis via boat, after receiving a concerned call from a woman on the beach.
Currey said rescuers determined that Ellis did not need to be rescued, did not know he was a suspect in the killings and that he gave officials a different name when he was approached.
Authorities are searching for Ellis by boat and it is possible that he drowned, the police chief added.
Ellis is approximately 6-foot-4 and 200 pounds. Multiple firearms were recovered from his home.
Deryl Loar, chairman of the Indian River County Commission, where both victims worked, addressed reporters Wednesday, praising their dedication and service.
“This is a resilient community,” he said. “We will get through this.”
