Gunman's rampage at Hialeah restaurant leaves 5 dead

Posted on Monday, 06.07.10

Four women were killed and three more were wounded after a gunman turned a Hialeah restaurant into a shooting gallery, police said. Police said the suspect killed himself.

BY DIANA MOSKOVITZ
dmoskovitz@miamiherald.com

An apparent domestic argument boiled over into a murderous rampage late Sunday night when a man walked into the parking lot of a Hialeah restaurant, pulled out a gun, and shot a woman.

Before he was done, four women were dead and three more were wounded -- and then he drove a few blocks away and committed suicide, police said.

The shooter began his rampage in the parking lot of the mall containing the Yoyito Restaurant, at 495 E. 49th St., said Hialeah Police spokesman Carl Zogby. No motive was known for the shootings, although the dead man was believed to have had a relationship with one of the women.

The shooting was seen by other employees as well as people who were in the shopping center at the time, Zogby said.

According to police and others:

A man and a woman were arguing in the parking lot in the strip mall where the restaurant is located and then the man shot the woman.

For reasons yet unknown to police, the man, in his early 30s, then entered the restaurant ``like a wild man, with a gun in hand, and began shooting indiscriminately,'' said Eduardo Rodriguez, who works at the restaurant and said the details were given to him by others who were dining at the time. He himself had just left the restaurant for the day, and the incident happened around the restaurant's closing time, shortly after 10 p.m., Rodriguez said.

Three women were taken to Ryder Trauma Center.

Some of the victims were reportedly employees of the small, family-run restaurant.

The suspected shooter was found a few blocks away -- at 350 E. 45th St. -- of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot. He was found in a vehicle believed to have been taken from one of the victims.

Late Sunday, police did not release the names of the suspected shooter or of the victims, pending notification of next of kin.

Police now must sort out who was shot and why, and what compelled the gunman.

From: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/06/07/1667341/gunmans-rampage-at-hialeah-restaurant.html