Cuban Immigrant Charged in Hotel Shootings

A Cuban immigrant and hotel employee, who a family member said just “snapped,” was charged Friday with five counts of first-degree murder in a shooting rampage that killed four of his co-workers and a motorist.

Silvio Leyva, 36, was arrested shortly after the shootings Thursday afternoon at the Radisson Bay Harbor Hotel. He appeared in court briefly Friday to hear the charges and was ordered held without bail.

“At this time, we don’t have a motive for the shootings. He hasn’t told us anything,” said Tampa Police Chief Bennie Holder.

The suspect worked in the housekeeping department of the hotel. Four of the murder victims and three other people he is accused of shooting and wounding also worked at the hotel. The fifth murder victim, a woman, was shot after she refused to give up her car to the alleged gunman at a nearby restaurant.

Killed, according to police, were Eric Pedroso, 29, Barbara Carter, 55, Jose Aguilar, 40, George Jones, 43, and Dolores Perdomo, 56.

Of the injured, Jorge Cano, 40, and Geraldine Dobson, 53, remained hospitalized, both in critical condition, police said early Friday. Charlie Lee White, 43, was released Thursday after treatment.

Holder said Leyva did not appear to be concerned about the shootings when he was arrested. “He was not upset. He was very calm.”

Witnesses said the gunman moved through the hotel shooting employees. No guests were injured in the hotel, packed with visitors in town for today’s football bowl game between Purdue University and the University of Georgia.

The St. Petersburg Times newspaper reported Friday that the suspect’s sister-in-law, Angela Vazquez, also worked at the hotel, supervising the housekeeping staff. The newspaper cited Vazquez’s daughter as saying the gunman chased Vazquez down the hall and tried to kill her. She was not injured.

A niece, Diana Izquierdo, said she could not fathom a motive. “My uncle snapped,” she told newspaper.

The suspect had lived on and off with Vazquez and her family, and had asked to move back in with them last month but was told there was not enough room, the newspaper said.

The newspaper said Leyva recently returned from a visit to Cuba and told relatives he wanted to become a priest in the Santeria religion, an Afro-Caribbean religion created by slaves.

Leyva came to the United States from Cuba in 1995 and lived in Alabama before moving to Florida.