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3 gunned down in Fla. hair salon; Suspect dead

Updated at 5:50 p.m. ET.

CASSELBERRY, Fla. A gunman opened fire in a central Florida beauty salon Thursday, killing three women and wounding the salon's manager 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, was served with a domestic violence injunction Oct. 9 and scheduled to be in Orange County court Thursday for a hearing with the salon's manager, Marcia Santiago, who took out the restraining order. Their relationship was not immediately clear. Casselberry police say she is in a hospital in serious condition.

Police identified two other victims as customer 52-year-old Gladys Cabrera and salon worker 29-year-old Noelia Gonzalez-Brito. Police did not immediately identify the fourth victim, who died.

About two hours before the hearing was to start, Baumet, 36, entered Las Dominicanas M & M Salon in Casselberry and started shooting, police spokeswoman Sara Brady said. Two women hid inside a bathroom and one ran outside through a back door.

The phone rang unanswered at the salon. Calls to Santiago and the salon's owner also went unanswered.

Authorities work the scene after a deadly shooting at a hair salon in Casselberry, Fla., Oct. 18, 2012.
Authorities work the scene after a deadly shooting at a hair salon in Casselberry, Fla., Oct. 18, 2012. WKMG-TV

About two dozen mourners gathered near the salon, located in a strip mall, and police taped off the parking lot. Yellow paper covered the salon's windows. A Dominican Republic flag was hung in the storefront along with a neon sign that read: Hair Cut. Color. Perm.

Authorities said Baumet went to a house about seven miles from the salon where two friends lived shortly after 11 a.m.. Baumet came in very agitated, anxious and upset "about a problem he couldn't fix" but didn't tell the people about the shooting, reports CBS Orlando affiliate WKMG-TV.

Baumet then pulled out a gun and took his own life, police said.

A witness to the salon shooting told the Orlando Sentinel he heard gunshots before seeing the gunman flee.

"We saw the guy with the gun in his hand ... coming this way ... on foot with the gun in his hand," said Juan Diaz, who was at a nearby store at the time of the shooting. He said he went into the salon once the gunman left and saw "a bunch of dead bodies."

A phone number listed for Baumet was disconnected.

Casselberry is about 15 miles northeast of Orlando.

A year ago in Southern California, an angry ex-husband donned a bulletproof vest before killing his ex-wife and six of her fellow stylists and patrons at a hair salon, police said. Scott Dekraai is also accused of killing a man in the parking lot. He is awaiting trial on murder charges.

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