Mass shooting in Hialeah captured by cameras

Posted on Wednesday, 06.09.10

Security recordings at Yoyito Cafe-Restaurant show how Gerardo Regalado burst into the eatery and killed five people.

BY LUISA YANEZ, LAURA ISENSEE AND MELISSA SANCHEZ
lyanez@MiamiHerald.com

Surveillance footage: http://univision.com/content/videoplayer.jhtml?cid=2430783


As video was made public Tuesday from the Hialeah restaurant killing spree that left five people dead, including the gunman and his estranged wife, the woman's family in Cuba said she was abused and had tried to save money to get away from him.

Liazan Molina's sister said in a telephone interview that Molina had said her husband, Gerardo Regalado, 38, beat her, threatened her and kept her like a prisoner in their home.

She had taken the job at Yoyito Cafe-Restaurant, 495 E. 49th St., two days earlier to make enough money to go back home.

``We were never in agreement with that relationship,'' Molina's sister, Liané, told El Nuevo Herald. ``Regalado had an ugly history here, but you know . . . she was in love.''

``He had her jailed,'' said Liané Molina. ``He didn't allow her to have friends. He kept her separate from everyone, isolated. She wasn't allowed to talk to other people.''

In recent days, Regalado was so desperate to get Molina, 24, back that he even called her family in Cuba, asking them to intervene and tell Molina to return to him -- that he was a ``good guy.'' He bought the family a stereo system and sent them $100, Molina's sister said.

But Molina moved in with a cousin after the couple's break-up.

Sunday night, restaurant security cameras captured the horrific violence that erupted when an armed and enraged Regalado, wielding a .45-caliber pistol, burst into the eatery, walked back to the kitchen and methodically shot his victims, including his wife. Moments before the shooting, Molina is seen, wearing glasses, a green top and jeans, mopping the floor around the counter.

Hialeah homicide detectives obtained the video Tuesday. It also showed how a male employee almost prevented the tragedy by trying to lock the front door. But Regalado, the half-brother of former New York Yankees pitcher Orlando ``El Duque'' Hernandez, pushed it open.

Wearing a red polo shirt and jean shorts, and holding a gun, he came face-to-face with the male employee and walked quickly and determinedly toward the back of the restaurant.

From another angle, female employees are seen running to the rear of the restaurant, apparently away from shots Regalado had just fired outside at his wife's cousin, who was waiting to pick her up.

Another security camera caught him in the kitchen, where he is seen chasing the women, some of whom appear to be hiding. Regalado stretched out his right arm and fired. In other frames, he strained and bent down to reach his victims.

Killed were Molina; Zaida Castillo, 56; Lavinia Fonseca, 47; and Maysel Figueroa, 32. Wounded were Yasmin Dominguez, 38; Ivet Coronado, 36; and Mayra de la Caridad Lopez, 55. Relatives asked Jackson Memorial Hospital not to release their conditions.

``After he shot all the women, the video shows him walking out of the restaurant,'' said Eduardo Rodriguez, one of the owners of the family-run restaurant.

Regalado would be dead within minutes. A few blocks away, he committed suicide inside an SUV.

Molina, the oldest of three daughters, was the first person Regalado shot inside the restaurant.

She had studied to become a teacher but abandoned that plan after meeting Regalado, a neighbor. She followed him to the United States, family members said. They married in 2007.

Now, her family is trying to bring her body back to Cuba. ``At least she is free of him,'' Liané said. ``That man thought he would be with her after killing himself, but he's wrong because she is with God and he's in hell.''

Meanwhile, the restaurant is scheduled to reopen at 5:30 a.m. Wednesday, serving cafe con leche for its first breakfast customers since the killings.

``Si Dios quiere -- God willing,'' said Rodriguez, one of Yoyito's owners.

``It happened here, but it could have happened anywhere,'' he said.

From: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/06/08/1670427/massacre-in-hialeah-captured-by.html