Gunman Kills 3 in Florida Salon Shooting

18 Oct, 2012

CASSELBERRY, Fla. — A gunman opened fire in a central Florida beauty salon Thursday, killing three women and wounding a fourth before killing himself at a nearby home, police said. The shooting appeared to be part of a domestic dispute.

The gunman, identified by police as Bradford Baumet, was served with a domestic violence injunction Oct. 9 and scheduled to be in Orange County court Thursday for a hearing with the salon’s manager, Marcia Santiago, who took out the restraining order. Their relationship was not immediately clear.

About two hours before the hearing was to start, Baumet, 36, entered Las Dominicanas M & M Salon in Casselberry and started shooting, police spokeswoman Sara Brady said. Two women hid inside a bathroom and one ran outside through a back door. The wounded woman was being treated at a hospital. Her condition was not immediately released.

Police have not identified the victims, and it was not clear whether Santiago was at the salon.

The phone rang unanswered at the salon. Calls to Santiago and the salon’s owner also went unanswered.

About two dozen mourners gathered near the salon, located in a strip mall, and police taped off the parking lot. Yellow paper covered the salon’s windows. A Dominican Republic flag was hung in the storefront along with a neon sign that read: Hair Cut. Color. Perm.

After the shooting, the gunman went to a friend’s home in nearby Winter Park, about seven miles from the salon, and shot himself, said Seminole County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Heather Smith. He did not threaten his friends, but said “he had some problems, problems he could not remedy.”

A witness to the salon shooting told the Orlando Sentinel he heard gunshots before seeing the gunman flee.

“We saw the guy with the gun in his hand … coming this way … on foot with the gun in his hand,” said Juan Diaz, who was at a nearby store at the time of the shooting. He said he went into the salon once the gunman left and saw “a bunch of dead bodies.”

A phone number listed for Baumet was disconnected. Casselberry is about 15 miles northeast of Orlando.

AP

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