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Shooting At Tampa Sonic, Suicide Leave Father Stunned

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By VALERIE KALFRIN

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 30, 2008

TAMPA - Edgar Rodriguez last spoke to his son four years ago, after he left the family house saying, "I need to work things out, Dad."

"I said, 'If you need anything, you know where I live. I'm not going anywhere,'" recalled Rodriguez, 57, of Homestead.

Tuesday afternoon, Rodriguez learned from Tampa police and the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office that his son, Allen Rodriguez, 26, had fatally shot himself after shooting two workers at a Sonic Drive-In restaurant in South Tampa hours earlier.

Carhop Cassandra Gorham, 21, of Seffner was shot under the arm, a witness said. Police said she was taken to Tampa General Hospital, where her condition was unavailable.

Another worker, Michael Stephens, 24, of Tampa, was treated at Tampa General Hospital and released.

Edgar Rodriguez said his son never struck him as the kind of person who would hurt himself or others.

"We always figured when he got his life straight, he'd be back," he said, in tears. "We don't know what happened to him."

Police were investigating what caused the shooting shortly before 1:40 a.m. Tuesday at 4411 W. Gandy Blvd. Police said Rodriguez visited Gorham there before the restaurant closed at midnight and she had asked him to leave; he returned as the workers were leaving and opened fire.

Gorham's friend Jeremiah Tinsley, 31, who had planned to give her a ride home from work, said Rodriguez was a customer who kept asking Gorham for a date. She told him she wasn't interested, Tinsley said.

Tinsley recalled how the gunman stepped out of the restaurant's parking lot and pointed a gun at them.

"I could see straight down the barrel," said Tinsley, 31. "She was getting into my car, and he fired, like, five rounds."

Hillsborough County deputies later found Rodriguez fatally shot inside a car in the 9300 block of Adamo Drive about 4:15 a.m.

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