MELBOURNE, Florida (AP) – A shopping mall in central Florida reopened Sunday, a day after a shooting in its food court that left two people dead, including the gunman, and one injured.
Melbourne Square Mall reopened for normal business hours at noon.
Police said 57-year-old Jose Garcia-Rodriguez of Palm Bay shot his wife and Leonardo Coppola before turning the gun on himself in the mall’s food court shortly before the mall opened Saturday morning.
Idanerys Garcia-Rodriguez, who worked at the mall, survived and was hospitalised in good condition. Police said the 33-year-old woman was the intended victim in the shooting that apparently stemmed from a domestic violence incident.
Coppola, 36, of West Melbourne, owned a restaurant in the food court. He was shot as he tried to move Idanerys Garcia-Rodriguez out of harm’s way, police said Sunday.
The mall was closed while police investigated. On Sunday, Florida Today reported a half-dozen flower bouquets and several white candles were displayed on the counter of a closed pizza restaurant in the food court.
Neighbours of the couple, who have two daughters, said they had seemed close.
“They would walk hand-in-hand all the time,” Raymond Jacobs, who lives across the street from the couple’s well-manicured home, told Florida Today.
Nick Csercse, who lives next-door, said Jose Garcia-Rodriguez was often chatty about his wife as they did yard work along their shared property lines.
“He would say, ‘She’s so great. Isn’t she great?’” Csercse said. “They were always together. They even hung up the Christmas lights together.”
