Shooting at Wendy's near West Palm Beach, Florida

By Hum
in Real World News

 Share

Recommended Posts

Grand Master

Hum

Posted
Posted (edited)

Updated

WEST PALM BEACH, FL (AP) -- A gunman in a jacket, tie and baseball cap wordlessly opened fire inside a Wendy's during the lunchtime rush Monday, killing a paramedic who had gone back to fetch the right toy to go with his child's meal and wounding five others. The 60-year-old shooter then committed suicide.

''This was not a robbery. He didn't demand anything,'' said Paul Miller, a Palm Beach County sheriff's spokesman. ''Looks like this was just another random shooting like we've seen around the United States.''

The 42-year-old victim, Palm Beach County Fire-Rescue Lt. Rafael Vazquez, who was not in uniform, had met his wife and child at the restaurant during a break in training down the street, Deputy Fire-Rescue Chief Steve Delai said. The family had gotten their food and walked out, but Vazquez returned because the wrong free toy had been included in the kids' meal, detectives said.

Vazquez's wife, a law enforcement officer in nearby Palm Springs, and child were in the parking lot when he was shot in the back as he stood at the counter.

''Our officer probably didn't even see him,'' Delai said of the gunman, Alburn Edward Blake.

Miller said Blake, a handyman and maintenance worker, had no relation to anyone at the restaurant and had never worked for Wendy's, and authorities had not found any notes.

''We don't know why he picked this location to do this horrible deed,'' he said.

Vazquez had been promoted in January and was attending a course called ''Strategy and Tactics'' before taking his lunch break. Delai said the course teaches officers how to ''manage large-scale incidents like we had today.''

The mayhem unfolded just after noon during the lunch hour rush at the eatery on a major suburban road lined with strip malls, car dealerships and fast food restaurants, about five miles from downtown West Palm Beach. A billboard advertising an upcoming gun show stands just behind the Wendy's.

Blake entered the restaurant and went to a restroom before coming out brandishing a 9 mm handgun, Miller said. About 10 to 15 people were in the restaurant at the time, he said.

Ashley Milton, 28, said she had just opened the door to get lunch when she heard the ''pop pop'' of gunfire and saw people running.

''I really didn't think that's what it was. I thought this can't be happening,'' she said. ''You see your life flash before your eyes.''

Josh Maynard, 30, said he and his 20-year-old brother Jerry hit the floor when Blake opened fire. Jerry Maynard said the shooter held his gun sideways and said nothing.

Three of the survivors were hospitalized and stable, Miller said. They included a 43-year-old man, a 16-year-old girl, and a 65-year-old man and his 62-year-old wife. Two others had minor injuries, including one person who was injured while running away.

''I just saw a lady with a little boy in her arms come running out screaming, 'Somebody's shooting!''' said Sandra Jackson, who had been getting gas across the street. The woman said her husband was still inside, said Jackson, 43, of Palm Springs.

When the shooting stopped, the Maynard brothers ran out of the restaurant. Josh Maynard's blue jeans were torn and his brown leather boots were sliced, damage he said was caused by a bullet that grazed him as he lay on the floor.

''It felt like somebody kicked me in the foot,'' he said.

One customer kicked the pistol away from the gunman after he shot himself, then started first aid on the wounded, Miller said.

Blake owned a maintenance company until 2003, according to public records. A 1996 story in The Palm Beach Post reported that he accidentally ran over an 18-month-old girl with his van, seriously injuring her. The story said he had a young daughter who would now be a teenager.

Neighbors described Blake as a quiet man who kept to himself. Michele Grippe watched police go into Blake's apartment after the shooting to search it.

''The only thing they took out of the house was a bag of pills,'' Grippe said. ''Right now, I'm really, really shocked. ... I'm here with my kids, and it's really scary to think about that. Sometimes we'll keep our door open. My kids play outside.''

Bob Bertini, a Wendy's Inc. spokesman based in Dublin, Ohio, called the shooting ''a senseless tragedy.''

source

Edited by Hum
Grand Master

ShaneSparky_YYZ

Posted
Posted

West Palm Beachis such a nice place in FL, what a shame to see this happen. I was there last year and its really upscale, I wouldn't think this would happen there, but it can happen anywhere.

Grand Master

Hurmoth

Posted
Posted
Another one?

I'm actually scared of going into the US now.

Don't be. The chances of being shot and killed are probably just as great as being killed in an automobile collision.

so bizarre. a wendys? why the hell a wendys?

I imagine it was something as stupid as them getting his order wrong:

"I said Vanilla Frostie Mother****ers!" :laugh:

Mentor

NateB1

Posted
Posted
Another one?

I'm actually scared of going into the US now.

Yeah, it's quite a challenge getting around here in the US - dodging bullets, avoiding knifing, and ordering food in a fast food restaurant are major issues. Fatalities are quite common around here. :rolleyes:

Grand Master

Farstrider

Posted
Posted (edited)
No, no, no and no. It isn't, it wasn't and it won't ever be.

IN Puerto Rico?s capital, San Juan, among the dilapidated colonial-style buildings and cobbled streets, the United States Government is represented in plush Federal Buildings. From here the island is controlled as a ?non-incorporated territory whbelongs to but is not part of the United StateLiving under US lawaw, Puerto Ricans enjoy unrestricted and duty-free trade with the mainlacommon citizenship, currency, postal and other services, fiscal autonomy and freedom from the US federal taxes.

Sorry to say, yes, yes, yes, it is effectively!!

Back on topic: It is sad to hear these things and even worse for the victims of crimes like this!

Edited by Farstrider
Mentor

Nose Nuggets

Posted
Posted

as much as i hate using Wikipedia as a reference;

Government Republican three-branch government

- Head of State George W. Bush

- Federal Legislative Branch United States Congress

The statutory laws of the United States not locally inapplicable, ... shall have the same force and effect in Puerto Rico as in the United States.

Hey, what ever you need to tell yourself so you can sleep at night. but you don't have to lie to kick it.

Grand Master

MGS4-SS

Posted
Posted
IN Puerto Rico?s capital, San Juan, among the dilapidated colonial-style buildings and cobbled streets, the United States Government is represented in plush Federal Buildings. From here the island is controlled as a ?non-incorporated territory whbelongs to but is not part of the United StateLiving under US lawaw, Puerto Ricans enjoy unrestricted and duty-free trade with the mainlacommon citizenship, currency, postal and other services, fiscal autonomy and freedom from the US federal taxes.

Sorry to say, yes, yes, yes, it is effectively!!

Back on topic: It is sad to hear these things and even worse for the victims of crimes like this!

Its just a colony, and no, it isn't the "US." It never was, it isn't now, and it will never be.

All the US gives us is the citizenship and the postal services.

And no, we don't have freedom from the US federal taxes, fiscal autonomy is a lie, duty-free was officially over last year.

Grand Master

MGS4-SS

Posted
Posted
soooooo your head of state is our president. your legislative branch is our congress. so yout subject to all presidential directives and all US laws, right? but its not part of the US?

It is a colony, I've said it a thousand times already. Its property of the US, but its not the US nor in the US.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

  • Posts

    • Google Meet brings Gemini note-taking to AI Pro and Ultra subscribers

      By Karthik Mudaliar · Posted

      Google Meet brings Gemini note-taking to AI Pro and Ultra subscribers by Karthik Mudaliar Google's Gemini-powered "Take notes for me" feature inside Google Meet is now available to Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers. The features work on Google Meet for web as well as on mobile, and Google says that subscribers can use it for meetings they host in many supported languages. As the name suggests, "Take notes for me" allows Gemini to listen to a meeting, generate a summary, identify action items, and save the notes as a Google Doc in the user’s Drive. After the meeting, the organizer receives an email recap with the summary and action items, while the notes can also be attached to the related Calendar event depending on the meeting setup and sharing settings. The feature isn't automatically turned on for everyone, though. Google says that all meeting participants are notified when note-taking is turned on, and users can start it from the pencil icon in Meet or enable it for future calls through Meet’s meeting records settings. For work or school accounts, administrators can also control whether the feature is available and may require explicit participant consent for note-taking, recording, or transcription features. The feature first launched back in 2024, when it was available just for selected Workspace users. Over the years, Google added refinements and more options, including the ability to enable it when scheduling meetings via Google Calendar. Google's support docs say that the feature currently supports English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish, but only one language at a time. Meetings with multiple spoken languages are not currently supported, and Google recommends using the tool for meetings between 15 minutes and eight hours. The new feature makes Google Meet closer to its rivals that have AI tools already built in. Microsoft Teams has recently started offering Copilot and intelligent recap features that summarize meetings, surface highlights, and help with follow-ups, while Zoom’s AI Companion can also generate meeting summaries from desktop and mobile meetings.
    • GnuCash 5.16

      By Copernic · Posted

      GnuCash 5.16 by Razvan Serea GnuCash is a personal and small business finance application, freely licensed under the GNU GPL and available for GNU/Linux, BSD, Solaris, Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows. It’s designed to be easy to use, yet powerful and flexible. GnuCash allows you to track your income and expenses, reconcile bank accounts, monitor stock portfolios and manage your small business finances. It is based on professional accounting principles to ensure balanced books and accurate reports. GnuCash can keep track of your personal finances in as much detail as you prefer. If you are just starting out, use GnuCash to keep track of your checkbook. You may then decide to track cash as well as credit card purchases to better determine where your money is being spent. When you start investing, you can use GnuCash to help monitor your portfolio. Buying a vehicle or a home? GnuCash will help you plan the investment and track loan payments. If your financial records span the globe, GnuCash provides all the multiple-currency support you need. Between 5.15 and 5.16, the following bugfixes were accomplished: Bug 421610 - RFE: Include logical dates for View->Filter by "date range"The Select Range section of the Date tab of the register's Filter By dialog box is changed to provide relative, specific date, or days ago options for the start and end of the filter range. The Show number of days item label is changed to Show from days ago to better reflect what it does. Bug 436105 - esc key not working as expected in register: Enable the escape key to cancel a field edit. Bug 797384 - Gnucash doesn't handle commodity prices with big numerator/denominator properly. Bug 798004 - Next gen UI for stock transactions Bug 799314 - Add "enter now" option in scheduled transaction editor. tab to allow users to select the scheduled transactions to be included in a “Since Last Run…” window. If there are no instances of a selected transaction triggered by today’s date, the next instance is triggered. Bug 799751 - autocomplete crash Bug 799759 - Users can't Enable entries via Checkboxes on Scheduled Transactions PageAllow the Enabled box in the list of scheduled transactions to be operated instead of having to open the transaction editor dialog and change the Enabled checkbox. Also added use of the Name column as the secondary column sort for all the other columns. Bug 799762 - Poor handling of cases where hidden/placeholder accounts are used in the account register Bug 799766 - Double line preference not respected in search register Bug 799767 - POST /accounts in bindings/python/example_scripts/rest-api is broken Bug 799777 - `xaccSplitSetParent`: reparenting a committed split silently drops its KVP slots (online_id, cap-gains links) Other changes & improvements: Numeric values may now be selected to copy in the Accounts page. Add new Finance::Quote source Finnhub.io: Free API key (personal/non-professional use) available at https://finnhub.io. Set FINNHUB_API_KEY environment variable to API key to use this source. As of June 2026, free tier API limit is 60 API calls/minute. The Investment Lots report has new optional columns for Computed Annual Growth Rate. Python Bindings: Improved translation of primary object (Account, Transaction, Split, etc.) so that they can be treated as normal Python objects. This is accomplished with SWIG magic so no existing code is obsoleted. Python Bindings: Better conversion of GLists to Python lists. Python Bindings: Destroy the QofSession in the Python Session dtor to prevent leaving the database locked. [engine] Add first-class online_id accessors for Split and Account and make them available to Python bindings, removing the unused Transaction online_id property. Improve C++ implementation of QofBook. Correct the Doxygen doc for qof_instance_get/set_kvp. [gnc-log-replay.cpp] fix incorrect guid dump Add some Boost library requirements needed by libgnucash-guile to CMakeLists.txt so that missing feature will fail at configure time. Use Compile-time Regular Expressions instead of std::regex in gnc-filepath-utils.cpp and instead of boost::regex in the CSV importer, with the CTRE v3.11.1 header added to borrowed [gnc-filepath-utils.cpp] null check char* arguments Add ChartJS licenses. Removed AEX from list of commodities. euronext.com is now using JS based anti-webscraping. [report-core] always offer options summary in reports. This is useful to debug reports. The Add options summary option is removed because it's no longer optional. Remove remaining obsolete IMContext from sheet Fix blurry text in HiDPI offscreen-rendered widgets Add port field to database connection dialog: The convention of appending the port number after the host isn't obvious. When editing a split in the register treat the account as being changed only if it isn't the one selected before editing instead of if the user performed an edit Return immediately from qof_book_destroy if hash_of_collections is null. If qof_book_destroy is called on a QofBook* freshly created with qof_book_new (usually because it was used to create a session that now must be destroyed) it would try to empty the non-existent hash tables, crashing. Clean up Flathub metadata to solve warnings at flatpak build time. Be consistent in naming GncPluginPage and GncPluginPageRegister HTML: Remove unimplemented function declarations. [gnc-html.cpp] remove unused buggy string conversion functions Convert libgnc-html to C++ Apply -Wall -Werr -Wmissing-prototypes to C++ compilation on Windows and fix the resulting errors. New and Updated Translations: Arabic, Croatian, Danish, Dutch, German, Finnish, Hungarian, Korean, Norwegian-Bokmal, Spanish Download: GnuCash 5.16 | 176.0 MB (Open Source) Links: GnuCash Home page | Other Operating Systems | Screenshot Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
    • Microsoft finally launches WSL Containers in public preview

      By David Uzondu · Posted

      Microsoft finally launches WSL Containers in public preview by David Uzondu Microsoft has announced that WSL containers, a feature that allows developers to run Linux containers natively inside Windows without the need for Docker Desktop, is now available in public preview several weeks after Microsoft previewed it at Build 2026. To use the new container feature, you first have to install the latest pre-release version of the Windows Subsystem for Linux by running a quick update command in your terminal: wsl --update --pre-release After installing, you'd get access to the new Linux container CLI (wslc.exe) and the programmable API. Microsoft said that the CLI has a "familiar format" that matches the toolsets developers already use every day. If you know standard Docker commands, your muscle memory will translate directly to wslc.exe, which even features a built-in alias called container.exe. You can quickly run a full Ubuntu KDE desktop container by exposing ports, or pass your graphics card straight into a machine learning environment to run PyTorch workloads. Passing the --gpus all flag inside the run command instantly links your hardware. Image via Microsoft As for the API, developers can now embed Linux container operations directly inside native Windows applications without exposing the command line to users. The team integrated the API directly into MSBuild and CMake, so developers can define container steps directly in project files. Apart from bringing the CLI and API into public preview, Microsoft also said that it's working on a new default file system called virtiofs to speed up file transfer rates between Windows and Linux. Microsoft also introduced an experimental networking mode named consomme, which resolves compatibility issues with corporate VPNs by routing Linux network traffic straight through Windows. One thing to note about WSL containers is that they don't run in your standard WSL distributions; instead, every application and CLI session spawns its own lightweight Hyper-V utility VM in the background. This basically reduces the chances of one app snooping on the container of another app.
    • Google reportedly limited Meta's Gemini access over limited AI compute

      By Karthik Mudaliar · Posted

      Google reportedly limited Meta's Gemini access over limited AI compute by Karthik Mudaliar Google is reportedly limiting Meta's use of its Gemini AI models after Meta tried buying more computing capacity than even Google could supply. According to the Financial Times, Google told Meta in March that it could not provide the full Gemini capacity that Meta had requested. This shortfall even disrupted and delayed some of Meta's internal projects. Due to this, Meta even told its employees internally to use AI tokens more efficiently. Meta wasn't the only one to get hit by this sudden refusal by Google; even other customers were affected. But Meta was hit harder because of its unusually high demand for Google's models. The move from Google makes it evident that companies all over are in limited supply of both infrastructure and compute. Alphabet said in April that Google Cloud revenue grew 63% year-over-year to $20 billion in the first quarter, helped by enterprise AI infrastructure and AI solutions. In pursuit of more compute, Meta had earlier signed a multi-billion-dollar AWS agreement as well as a large AMD GPU deal for AI data centers. But the crunch would be short-lived as both Meta and Google have also ramped up infrastructure investments heavily. Meta said in November that it was committing more than $600 billion in the U.S. by 2028 for AI technology, infrastructure, and workforce expansion. In the first quarter of this year, Meta also raised its expected capital expenditure for 2026 to a range of $125 billion to $145 billion, citing higher component pricing and additional data center costs for future capacity. However, this doesn't make the company immune to the current dependence on outside suppliers. Meta has also spent many years promoting Llama as an open-weight alternative to closed models from Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic. But if the reported reliance on Google's Gemini models is severe enough for internal work to get impacted, then it looks like even frontier labs and Big Tech aren't fully self-sufficient. Source: Financial Times
    • Samsung, Amazon extend 990 PRO 2TB NVMe SSD deal beyond Prime Day 2026

      By seeprime · Posted

      I like to reminisce about the good old days, way back in autumn 2025 when building a gaming machine was fun and the drives were about $150 when you caught a deal. Yes duh, back in the day we had it gone. Then baby Skynet came along, hiding in AI datacenters demanding more processing power until it reached singularity. End of a not totally fictional story.

  • Recent Achievements

    • Reacting Well
      NovaEdgeX earned a badge
      Reacting Well
    • Week One Done
      NovaEdgeX earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • One Year In
      BA the Curmudgeon earned a badge
      One Year In
    • Conversation Starter
      rosiecharles earned a badge
      Conversation Starter
    • First Post
      KMilenkoski1202 earned a badge
      First Post

  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      533
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      269
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      150
    4. 4
      Steven P.
      98
    5. 5
      macoman
      66
    Show More

  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!