A gunman opened fire in a Florida beauty salon Thursday, killing 3 women and wounding a 4th 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 (above), was served with a domestic violence injunction Oct. 9 and scheduled to be in court Thursday for a hearing with the salon’s manager, ex-girlfriend Marcia Santiago, who took out the restraining order.
Baumet’s ex-girlfriend 44 year old Marcia Santiago(right) , who managed the salon suffered a gunshot wound. Both she and the owner, Eugenia Marte(left), had filed domestic violence injunctions against the 36-year-old man in recent weeks.
About two hours before the hearing was to start, Baumet, 36, entered Las Dominicanas M & M Salon in Casselberry (Casselberry is about 15 miles northeast of Orlando) and started shooting. Two women hid inside a bathroom and one ran outside through a back door. Baumet killed his ex-girlfriend, salon manager Marcia Santiago and several of her coworkers.
About two dozen mourners gathered near the salon, located in a strip mall, and police taped off the parking lot.
After the shooting, the gunman went to a friend’s home in nearby Winter Park, about 7 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.”
Baumet had had many run-ins with the law in the past, with dozens of arrests in Florida and Rhode Island, for charges that ran the gamut from making obscene phone calls to stalking and burglary.
As recently as last Sunday, the 36-year-old was in police custody for allegedly operating a vehicle with a suspended license. He pleaded no contest and was sentenced to time-served and a fine.
In 2004, Baumet was arrested on charges of stalking and burglary. He pleaded no contest, spent a short time behind bars and got two years of probation.
That same year, a woman filed a domestic violence injunction against Baumet in Broward County. Earlier this year in Seminole County, Baumet was sentenced to nearly a year in jail after pleading no contest to selling pirated music CDs, according to court documents cited by the Sentinel.
Orange County court records show that on October 5, Baumet drove to the Casselberry salon, banged on the locked door and threatened to kill the women inside.
Just days later, both Marte and Santiago filed and obtained temporary injunctions against Baumet.
“I am scared and feel my life is in danger,” Santiago wrote in her injunction application.
Santiago also told the court about previous incidents, where Baumet manhandled her, forced her to have sex and made threats on her life.
“I did not file right away because Brafort [sic] threatened me that if I file an injunction that he will kill me,” Santiago stated. “I got scared.”
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