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St. Petersburg mother with shotgun tells son, 7, to jump from window — then jumps herself

 
The multiunit apartment building at 335 Seventh Ave. N in St. Petersburg where police said a mother forced her young son to jump out a window at gunpoint Thursday morning before jumping herself. [ZACHARY T. SAMPSON |   Times]
The multiunit apartment building at 335 Seventh Ave. N in St. Petersburg where police said a mother forced her young son to jump out a window at gunpoint Thursday morning before jumping herself. [ZACHARY T. SAMPSON | Times]
Published March 6, 2015

ST. PETERSBURG — A 7-year-old boy was treated at a hospital Thursday morning after his mother, wielding a shotgun, told him to jump from a second-story window — and then jumped herself, St. Petersburg police said.

Michelle Vail, 32, faces a charge of aggravated child abuse in the case. The boy, Oscar, suffered a minor head injury and bruises to his stomach, said St. Petersburg police Maj. Mike Kovacsev. When police interviewed him later in the morning, Oscar told them that his mother had woken him up and urged him to jump, saying a serial killer was at the door.

Investigators are not sure what exactly happened, but Kovacsev said Vail "wasn't acting in the fashion that a normal person would act." Officers are investigating to see if alcohol, drugs or a psychotic episode were factors in the incident.

Authorities first received a distressed call from Vail around 6:30 a.m., said police spokesperson Yolanda Fernandez. "She was saying that her ex-boyfriend was at the door, that he was coming in, that she needed police," Fernandez said.

When officers arrived at 335 Seventh Ave. N, Vail would not let them inside the apartment. Fernandez said the woman told police she did not believe they were real officers. Officers found no sign that anyone had tried to force their way into the home.

"She was babbling incoherently. None of it made any sense," Fernandez said.

The officers stepped away, Fernandez said, "and then they heard glass breaking."

They moved back toward the apartment and saw Vail knocking a shotgun against the wall and a door inside. They tried to coax her toward the entryway, Fernandez said.

Then they heard the boy scream. Police broke down the apartment door, Fernandez said, but by the time they reached the back room, Vail and the boy had jumped.

"The child came out first through the window, and then she followed," Fernandez said. Vail suffered only superficial injuries, according to authorities. She and her son landed near a concrete path surrounded by dirt, police said, but investigators could not pinpoint exactly where they hit the ground.

The two officers who responded to the initial call found Vail lying next to her son on the ground. Kovacsev said they separated the two and asked what happened.

"He listened to his mom," Kovacsev said.

Police found a handgun, miscellaneous ammunition and a large knife inside the apartment in addition to the shotgun, he said. Though no weapons were fired, he said, police found an improperly loaded shell in the shotgun.

"Either she didn't know how to use it or she wasn't coherent enough to use it," Kovacsev said.

Police are investigating how Vail obtained the weapons.

The boy was initially taken to a local hospital, with responders concerned he may have suffered internal injuries from the fall. But authorities said Thursday afternoon that he was in stable condition.

Vail's father said around 4 p.m. on Thursday that he still had not talked to police and declined to comment. Kovacsev said she was last known to live in Ormond Beach, but that she told officers she lived in St. Petersburg when she was younger and arrived here sometime in the last 10 days.

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There's no record of any Florida arrests for Michelle Vail, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. The state Department of Children and Families had no prior interactions with her, a spokesperson said.

The spokesperson, Natalie Harrell, said the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office Child Protective Investigations Division opened a case after the incident Thursday morning.

A woman who answered the phone at the office of the property manager for the apartment building said the company declined to comment.

Times researcher John Martin and staff writers Katie Mettler and Curtis Krueger contributed to this report. Contact Zachary T. Sampson at zsampson@tampabay.com. Follow @zacksampson on Twitter.