By Dianna Cahn
Sun-Sentinel
Copyright 2008 Sun-Sentinel Company
 Photo courtesy of Palm Beach County Fire-Rescue Lt. Rafael Vazquez |
PALM BEACH, Fla. — District 10 Fire Chief David Jones did not know the woman kneeling and crying beside a young child at the side of the road was the wife of a fellow firefighter.
The woman, Michele Vazquez, didn’t know the tears she was shedding in sheer terror would turn to those of personal grief for her slain husband.
Those realizations would come all too soon.
At that moment Monday, Jones was driving past the Wendy’s on Military Trail and Cherry Road toward Station 24, slowing down to see what the woman with the child and a man standing a few feet away were watching.
The man told him someone inside the Wendy’s was shooting people. And then, from behind the restaurant, another firefighter charged across the street to Jones’ fire-rescue vehicle.
“He said the guy’s shooting multiple rounds off. There are a lot of people hit and he had four down,” Jones said. “He escaped when the man reloaded.”
Jones jumped into action, calling in the first-level multiple casualty incident. It was 12:20 p.m. Then he set up the scene: incident command at the Wendy’s parking lot, triage and two staging areas for transport.
It was 12:35 p.m. when a helicopter took off with the first of five casualties, he said. Two other shooting victims would be flown out and two taken by ambulance.
Two more would be removed by the medical examiner: Fire Rescue EMS Supervisor Rafael Vazquez, 42, who had just finished lunch with his family; and the shooter, Alburn Blake, 60. Vazquez may have gone back into the restaurant to retrieve or exchange a toy, authorities said.
Louis Rader, 65, of River Edge Road in Jupiter, was shot in the arm and leg, the Sheriff’s Office said. His wife, Antonia, 62, was shot in the arm and ankle. They were taken to Delray Medical Center and were in stable condition.
Olga Soto and her 16-year-old daughter Vanessa are at Good Samaritan Medical Center in West Palm Beach, said Kachi Soto, Vanessa’s sister. Vanessa Soto was shot in the arm while she and her mother were eating lunch, Kachi said. Her mother had no gunshot wounds.
The Sheriff’s Office said a 43-year-old man was shot in the upper right arm and underwent surgery at St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach. He was not identified pending notification of family.
At the scene, two of the firefighters who worked triage Monday knew Vazquez well.
“The saying is that this call doesn’t wash off as easily because it’s one of your own,” Jones said, weary at the end of a long haul on a day that was not yet over. “We run on deceased persons all the time - car accidents, gunshots - but throw in one of your own.
“You realize we could’ve lost two guys as easily as one. And maybe a whole family. Even myself.”
While recounting his day at his fire station on Okeechobee Boulevard several hours later, Jones took a moment to answer a call on his cell phone.
“That was my daughter calling to tell me good night,” Jones said. “She’s 13 and I have two boys. And your heart goes out to the family whose father is not coming home.”