911 call: I just shot my wife

"I'm going to the Raleigh Police Department to turn myself in. I just shot my wife," he can be heard saying on calls released Friday.

Police found Agata Flipska Vellotti, 43, at the Meridian at Wakefield apartments, at 11501 Colbert Creek Loop. Friends said she had recently moved out of the home she shared with her husband and was looking forward to starting a new life with the couple's 6-year-old son.

According to court documents, the two married in Poland in 2005 and were involved in a custody dispute, and Agata Vellotti had a domestic violence protective order against her husband. She was returning from walking her son to school when she was shot just before 9 a.m.

In another 911 call, a neighbor tells dispatchers his wife saw Mario Vellotti walking with a gun outside his home on Kinsley Place. "I'm a witness in an on-going case, and I've been a witness on behalf of his wife," the caller says, noting that Mario Vellotti has made threats against his family. 

Attorneys handling the Vellottis' divorce were apparently so concerned that they both called 911 within minutes of the shooting. Mario Vellotti's attorney told dispatchers he had called them to tell them he had shot his ex-wife outside of North Forest Pines Elementary School. 

Minutes later, Agata Vellotti's divorce lawyer also called 911 to report that opposing counsel told him his client had shot his estranged wife. After the dispatcher confirmed to the lawyer that police are investigating a shooting on Colbert Creek Loop, the lawyer curses and gets off the phone.

Mario Vellotti, 64, of 2728 Kinsley Place, faces a charge of first-degree murder and is being held without bond in the Wake County jail.

According to a letter sent to Agata Vellotti's friends, the couple's son is in protective custody, and Agata Vellotti's family hopes to bring him to Poland to live with them as soon as possible.

Wake Family Law Group, the firm that represented Agata Vellotti, is trying to raise money to make that happen. Donations can be made to Francesco's Fund, c/o Wake Family Law Group, 4350 Lassiter at North Hills Ave., Raleigh, N.C. 27609.