By Amy Pavuk and Jeff Weiner, Orlando Sentinel –
ORLANDO, Fla. — Four women at a central Florida hair salon were shot Thursday — three of them fatally — before the shooter committed suicide at a home nearby, authorities say.
Casselberry police said four women who worked at the Las Dominicanas M & M Salon were shot at the business around 11 a.m.
Three of the women were pronounced dead. The fourth woman was taken to an area hospital and her condition is unknown.
Police said the gunman left the salon, located in a small strip mall near a Family Dollar store, and then shot himself several miles away at a home on Paradise Lane.
The identities of the gunman or deceased have not been released.
Police believe the shooting may be domestic-related, although they have not confirmed that, said Casselberry Police Department spokeswoman Sara Brady. Casselberry is about 15 miles northeast of Orlando.
Dozens of friends and relatives of the victims and the gunman gathered at the shopping center Thursday afternoon, where police blocked off the parking lot and covered the windows and door at the salon, blocking the view inside.
One of those who gathered at the salon told the Orlando Sentinel one of the women who worked at the salon was pregnant.
Two distraught women, who said they were relatives of the gunman, said the man wanted to be romantically involved with one of the women who worked at the salon.
The women, who said they were a cousin and an aunt of the gunman, told the Orlando Sentinel the man had been acting erratically and they told the victim to get a restraining order. They warned the man to stay away from the woman, they said.
“My cousin, he’s been having problems. He’s mentally not there. We’ve been telling her dad, just keep away from him, keep away from him. Get a restraining order,” one of the women said.
They did not identify the gunman.
Witnesses who worked nearby told the Sentinel they heard gunshots and saw the gunman as he left the salon.
Juan Diaz said he was with customers in the Metro PCS store when they heard four shots. He and a customer jumped over the counter.
“We saw the guy with the gun in his hand … coming this way … on foot with the gun in his hand,” Diaz said.
The customer and employee went into the safe.
“When we realized the guy was gone … we went in the hair salon. And once we were in the hair salon we just saw a bunch of dead bodies,” Diaz said. “Four people shot. Three people dead. Not a good thing.”
At the scene of the second shooting on Paradise Lane, Seminole County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Heather Smith said the man thought to be involved with the salon shootings came to the home shortly after 11 a.m.
He is friends with a couple who resides at the residence, Smith said, and told them he had “some problems.”
“They were some problems that he felt like he couldn’t remedy,” Smith said.
The man then shot himself.
State corporation records show the agent for Las Dominicanas M & M Hair Salon is Eugenia Marte of Winter Park. The manager is listed as Marcia Santiago of Orlando. The business was incorporated in February.
In a video posted on the salon’s website by salon employees, an upbeat woman explains in Spanish the services offered at the business. The video ends with the stylists welcoming customers to their salon.
