Gunman kills wife, three others at Florida restaurant

June 08, 2010|Associated Press

HIALEAH, Fla. — A gunman shot and killed his wife outside a South Florida restaurant where she worked, then targeted women inside and killed three others before committing suicide, police said yesterday.

Three women were hospitalized in critical condition, Hialeah police Detective Eddie Rodriguez said. “He went straight for the women,’’ Rodriguez said.

The shooting began about 10:15 Sunday night in a parking lot outside Yoyito Cafe-Restaurant in Hialeah, where Gerardo Regalado, 38, of Coral Gables was seen arguing with Liazan Molina, Rodriguez said. According to Florida records, the couple married in 2007.

According to police, Regalado shot and killed Molina, 24, then entered the restaurant and fired at six women inside.

Regalado was the half brother of former baseball star Orlando “El Duque’’ Hernandez, according to Hernandez’s agent, Mike Maulini.

One employee called her brother after being wounded.

Felix Fuentes said his sister, Ivet Coronado, told him to “please call 911.’’ He said the 36-year-old woman was recovering yesterday after undergoing surgery for gunshot wounds to her chest and one of her arms.

Regalado drove off after the shooting, police said. Officers found him dead of an apparent suicide a few blocks away, with the same weapon used in the previous shootings.

A person who answered the phone at the home where Regalado and Molina lived said the family didn’t want to talk.

It was not immediately clear whether the women shot were employees or customers. The shooting began shortly after the restaurant had closed.

A spokeswoman for Jackson Memorial Hospital declined to release information about the three women being treated there.

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