Gunman performs 'execution-style' killings of five women inside US bank

A gunman who overtook a bank branch in Florida apparently made five women inside lie down on the lobby floor before shooting them in the backs of their heads, police say.

There is no indication Zephen Xaver intended to rob the SunTrust Bank, and no apparent connection among him, the bank or the victims, Sebring police chief Karl Hoglund says.

Xaver, 21, has been charged with five counts of premeditated murder in the shooting deaths of the four bank employees and a customer.

"He overtook the bank by force. He then shot everyone in the bank," Hoglund said on Thursday.

After shooting them, he called 911 and told dispatchers that he'd killed everyone in the bank, Hoglund said.

According to an affidavit, all the victims were found in the bank's lobby, lying face down with gunshot wounds to the backs of their heads.

Shell casings from Xaver's 9mm handgun were scattered on the floor.

After calling 911, Xaver refused to surrender and would not allow officers to reach the victims, the police chief said.

After more than an hour of negotiations, the chief ordered a Swat team in; they had to use an armoured vehicle to break through the front doors.

Xaver was found in an office in the rear.

By then, all the victims were already dead, the chief said.

Xaver wore a black-and-white striped prison uniform in a brief court appearance on Thursday morning as he was appointed a public defender and ordered held without bail.

His father said he is "heartbroken" for the victims and that his son "wasn't raised to be like this".

"He's always been a good kid. He's had his troubles, but he has never hurt anyone ever before. This is a total shock," Josh Xaver told CNN.

It was not a shock to Alex Gerlach, who identified herself as Xaver's former girlfriend.

She said he has long been fascinated with the idea of killing, but no-one took her warnings seriously.

For some reason, he "always hated people and wanted everybody to die", Gerlach told WSBT-TV in South Bend, Indiana.

"He got kicked out of school for having a dream that he killed everybody in his class, and he's been threatening this for so long, and he's been having dreams about it and everything," she said.

"Every single person I've told has not taken it seriously, and it's very unfortunate that it had to come to this."

Ms Gerlach told The Washington Post that Xaver said he purchased a gun last week and "no-one thought anything of it" because he had always liked guns.

This was at least the fourth mass shooting in Florida with five or more dead in the last three years.

A gunman killed 49 at an Orlando nightclub in 2016, five died at the Fort Lauderdale airport in 2017, and 17 died in February at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in a Fort Lauderdale suburb.