HIALEAH — For Gerardo Regalado — half-brother of former New York Yankees pitcher Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez — it was obvious his young, pretty wife was moving on. "I'm stupid because I had everything and I threw it away," he wrote on the Facebook page of his wife, Liazan Molina, 24, whom he had brought to the United States from Cuba in 2007 and called "the love of my life."
"My days have no sunshine; the nights have no stars," he wrote a week ago.
Another posting on May 30: "If you ever need me, call me."
By Sunday night, Regalado's apparent resignation had turned into a rage that left five people dead, including himself.
Regalado, 38, showed up at Yoyito Cafe in Hialeah on Sunday night, just as his estranged wife was finishing her second day as a waitress. Armed with a .45-caliber pistol that he owned, he pulled the trigger nine times, killing Molina and three co-workers. He also wounded three others in a shooting spree that was described by 911 callers as total mayhem.
"He came in running, like a crazy man ... shooting everybody," screamed one 911 caller at 10:11 p.m. "He came in running and killing."
Regalado seemed to have targeted his victims. All were women. Only one was not an employee of the popular eatery on one of the busiest corners in Hialeah.
He deliberately walked in the kitchen and started shooting, police said.
Eduardo Rodriguez, the restaurant's spokesman, said witneses told him Regalado came with "a mission to kill."
"We've never had this many people killed at one time. It's a first for us," said Hialeah police Sgt. Carl Zogby.
Within minutes after fleeing the restaurant in a white SUV, Regalado committed suicide, using the same gun to shoot himself blocks away from the crime scene.
"He did not leave a suicide note," Zogby said.
Loved ones and neighbors called the dead women, all mothers, hardworking and caring.
They were:
Maysel Figueroa, 32, of Hialeah, who lived with her husband and their small son near the restaurant. Figueroa started work at Yoyito only a few days ago, after leaving a job at a discount store.
Lavina M. Fonseca, 47, lived across the street from Figueroa in an efficiency with her 18-year-old daughter.
Zaida Castillo, 56, of Hialeah, followed her only daughter, son-in-law and grandson from the rural Cuban town of Quivicán to the United States about six years ago. She cooked in Yoyito's kitchen and tried to support her elderly mother in Cuba.
