By Stephanie Horvath, Mark Hollis and Leon Fooksman
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Copyright 2008 South Florida Sun-Sentinel
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Palm Beach County deputies have identified the gunman who killed a firefighter and injured four others during a lunchtime shooting in a Wendy’s west of West Palm Beach on Monday.
Alburn Edward Blake, 60, of West Palm Beach allegedly opened fire in the restaurant about 12:18 p.m. He eventually turned the gun on himself, shooting himself in the head.
Rafael Vazquez, a 42-year-old firefighter, had just eaten lunch at the restaurant at Military Trail and Cherry Road with his wife Michele, a Palm Springs police officer, and his 4-year-old child.
He had returned inside, maybe to retrieve or exchange a toy, said Paul Miller, a spokesman for the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office. Blake shot him at point blank range near the restaurant’s counter.
Miller said Blake’s motive is unknown and it appears to be a random act of violence.
“We don’t believe the gunman knew anybody he was shooting at,” Miller said.
Vazquez, who was assigned to Station 28 in Royal Palm Beach, worked for Palm Beach County since 2001 and was promoted to lieutenant in January, according to Don DeLucia, staff captain of Palm Beach Fire Rescue. He was also a paramedic and was training at a nearby facility on Monday. He was dressed in civilian clothes, said Steve Delai, a spokesman for Palm Beach County Fire Rescue.
“It’s so difficult to put meaning to a senseless act,” said Delai, who did not know Vazquez. “I can’t come to grips with it.”
DeLucia said Vazquez had five children, ages four to 21. He said services will be announced later this week.
Miller said the four other victims, none of whom he identified, were taken to local hospitals.
Olga Soto and her 16-year-old daughter Vanessa are at Good Samaritan Medical Center, said Kachi Soto, Vanessa’s sister. Vanessa was shot in the shoulder while she and her mother were eating lunch, Kachi said. Vanessa will undergo surgery, she said. The mother had no gunshot wounds.
Miller said a 43-year-old male victim was shot in the upper right arm and is undergoing surgery at St. Mary’s Medical Center. A 65-year-old man a 62-year-old woman, husband and wife, are in stable condition at Delray Medical Center with non-life-threatening injuries.
The shooting happened about 12:18 p.m. at the Wendy’s at 1376 N. Military Trail, west of West Palm Beach.
Miller said Blake — wearing a Samsung baseball cap, a tan sports coat, a white shirt and a blue and gold tie — entered the Wendy’s about 12:15 p.m. After going to the men’s room, he approached the counter and shot Vazquez from behind. Miller said he believes Blake used a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun and had at least two clips.
Blake then started firing randomly at other customers, sweeping his gun from left to right, Miller said. Then Blake stood in the center of the restaurant and shot himself in the head, he said.
“There was a lot of screaming. People were trying to flee,” Miller said, adding that they believe about 10 to 15 people were in the Wendy’s at the time. Some fled on foot, leaving their cars in the parking lot.
He said the sheriff’s office is asking those witnesses to contact them so they can be interviewed.
Miller said that deputies think Blake owned a couple of businesses in the past and might be currently unemployed. He had filed the serial numbers off his handgun, making it harder to trace its sale. A check with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement showed he had no criminal record in the state.
Miller said deputies found no suicide note or explanation at Blake’s apartment, at 247 Wenonah Place in West Palm Beach.
“Unfortunately it looks like this was another random shooting like we’ve seen around the country,” Miller said. “This time it was in Palm Beach County.”
According to a 1989 marriage license, Blake is a native of Jamaica. He apparently married and divorced twice and now lived in a white, two-story apartment with green railings and a white wicker rocker outside. Neighbors said he lived with a woman and did maintenance work in the area.
Betsy White, a neighbor, said the police were at the apartment all afternoon. She said she saw them carry ammunition and a clear plastic bag with pill vials in it. She said she spoke to Blake often.
“He’s a very nice man. Very quiet. He’s very neat and very decent,” White said. “He did great Christmas lights. We talked about how we he did them.”
At least one of the witnesses at the Wendy’s “acted heroically,” Miller said. After Blake shot himself, he kicked the gun away and then gave first aid to a victim, Miller said.
No employees were injured. One other male victim fell while trying to escape the restaurant, but did not suffer a gunshot wound, Miller said. His condition is unknown.
Deputies had closed Military Trail between Okeechobee Boulevard and Belvedere Road, but it reopened shortly after the shooting. Cherry Road, which is just south of the Wendy’s, reopened Monday evening.
Wendy’s corporate spokesman Bob Bertini said the company is turning over security camera footage to investigators and the restaurant employees have given statements.
“This is obviously a terrible, sad day for the restaurant and the community. It’s a senseless tragedy,” he said. “Our hearts go out to the victims and their families. To our knowledge, it’s an incident that could happen anywhere.”
Witnesses said they heard 15 to 20 shots at the fast-food restaurant at Military and Cherry Road. Deputies initially responded carrying automatic rifles.
Brothers Jerry and Josh Maynard were on their lunch break with a co-worker when Blake opened fire 10 feet away. The three flipped over their table and hit the floor. When Blake stopped firing, they ran out of the restaurant.
Josh Maynard found a bullet had grazed his jeans leg and work boot, but he wasn’t injured.
“I’m really shaken up,” he said. “Someone was looking out for me.”
Jerry Maynard couldn’t believe the irony of the t-shirt he chose to wear that day. The black shirt bears the name of his friend’s band: Witness Murder
“I’m actually going to go burn it when I get home,” he said. “I’m never going to wear this shirt again.”
Some of the customers helped each other flee.
Howard Simpkins, 87, of Wellington, was in his 2005 Saturn at the drive-thru line waiting to get a double cheeseburger with extra onions when gunfire erupted inside the restaurant. The car in front of him tried to pull out, but he panicked and froze, he said. Then, the driver and passenger from the car in front of him rushed toward him, pulled him out of his car and took him to safety next to tree.
“I was shaking. I didn’t know what to do,” said Simpkins, who goes to the restaurant for lunch almost daily.
Ashley Milton was just walking into the Wendy’s when she heard the loud, rapid gunfire. She didn’t see Blake and got no closer than the front door.
“I did the best thing I knew to do. Turn around and run and save myself. I heard it. My ears are still ringing,” said Milton, a mother of four from Riviera Beach. She said the shooting unnerved her because Wendy’s is a place she would take her kids.
“I just can’t believe it,” she said. “Why would (the shooter) do all that?”
It’s not the first time the Wendy’s at the corner of Cherry Road and Military Trail has had a brush with violence.
Last year a woman with an automatic handgun drove up to the drive-through window and tried to hold up the restaurant.
And in 2006, two armed men tried to rob the Wendy’s by smashing the glass entrance with a brick. They forced restaurant’s employees into the storage cooler. There were no shots fired and no injuries.
Cesar Castillo is the owner of El Latino convenience store in the Palm Beach Commons plaza next to the Wendy’s. He said he’s been trying to sell his business to escape Palm Beach County for his native New York City.
“I’m ready to pack up and leave South Florida,” said Castillo, who opened the store five years ago. “Taxes, crime, it’s too much.”
A few doors down at Print America Quality Printing another New York native, owner Mitch Krieg, looked out his front window at the deputies, media and helicopter circling the crime scene. He called the shooting “a fluke.”
“I’m from Brooklyn,” he said. “This kind of thing happens all the time there.”
Staff Writers Barbara Hijek, Peter Franceschina, Andrew Reid, Sally Apgar, Dianna Cahn and Dan Scapusio contributed to this story.