A Florida man pleaded guilty to killing five women at a bank in 2019.

PINELLAS COUNTY, Florida. A Florida man pleaded guilty to killing five women at a small town bank branch in 2019.

Zefen Xaver, 25, faces either a life sentence or a death sentence at the punishment stage next year.

Court records show that Xavier pleaded guilty yesterday to five counts of first-degree murder.

The Highlands County Judge has set the punitive portion of the case for January 16, 2024.

Xaver admitted that on January 23, 2019, he shot and killed four SunTrust Bank branch employees and one customer.

Investigators say all five victims were ordered to lie on the floor and then shot one by one. They added that the robbery was not the motive and that Xavier had nothing to do with the victims.

“We believe it was an accidental act,” Sebring Police Chief Carl Hoglund said shortly after the murder. “Apart from the fact that he may have been driving by and saw that it was a bank, we have no known evidence that he targeted this bank for any specific reason.”

Investigators say Xavier called 911 from the bank and told the dispatcher what he had done, then refused to leave the bank building when heavily armed police arrived.

After a two-hour standoff, Xavier finally gave in and was taken into custody, where he remains to this day.

Four SunTrust employees were killed that day: Ana Pignon-Williams, Debra Cook, Marisol Lopez, and Jessica Montagu.

The deceased client was Cynthia Watson. Police say one officer who was in the back break room escaped the massacre.