Silvio Izquierdo-Leyva and the 1999 Tampa Hotel Massacre
Overview
On December 30, 1999, Silvio Izquierdo-Leyva carried out a deadly shooting rampage at the Radisson Bay Harbor Hotel and several nearby locations in Tampa, Florida. The violence began inside and around the crowded hotel shortly after 3:00 p.m., only two days before the beginning of the new millennium. Four hotel employees were killed, three other people were wounded, and a fifth person was murdered during Izquierdo-Leyva’s flight from the property.
Izquierdo-Leyva was a 36-year-old Cuban immigrant who had been employed as a housekeeper at the hotel for only about one month. Armed with two handguns, he moved through different sections of the resort and opened fire on fellow employees without warning. He then escaped from the hotel through a series of attempted and completed carjackings before Tampa police officers captured him less than half an hour after the first shots were fired.
Background of Silvio Izquierdo-Leyva
Silvio Izquierdo-Leyva was born in Cuba in approximately 1964. In 1995, he and his brother Pedro reportedly left Cuba by raft and reached the United States Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay. Izquierdo-Leyva later settled in Mobile, Alabama, where he lived from approximately 1996 until 1998. He eventually moved to Tampa, Florida.
Izquierdo-Leyva had displayed serious violence before the Tampa massacre. In 1997, while employed at a metal factory in Alabama, he reportedly entered a coworker’s apartment and stabbed the man in the leg with a kitchen knife. Despite that incident, he was later able to obtain firearms legally.
By late 1999, Izquierdo-Leyva was living in Tampa with his girlfriend, Adriana Ordonez. He had a young daughter who remained in Cuba. In November 1999, approximately one month before the murders, he returned to Cuba for a 21-day visit with relatives and friends. After returning to Florida, he began working as a housekeeper at the Radisson Bay Harbor Hotel in Tampa’s Rocky Point area.
The Radisson Bay Harbor Hotel
The Radisson Bay Harbor Hotel was a large waterfront resort located near Tampa International Airport. On December 30, 1999, the property was crowded with employees, tourists and college football fans who had traveled to Tampa for the upcoming Outback Bowl between Purdue University and the University of Georgia.
Izquierdo-Leyva left his home for work at approximately 8:30 a.m. that morning. His girlfriend spoke with him by telephone at about 9:30 a.m. and later said that he appeared normal. He reportedly told her to prepare their clothes so they could do laundry after he returned home. Nothing in the conversation suggested that he was about to commit mass murder.
The Shooting Begins
At approximately 3:10 p.m., Izquierdo-Leyva produced a nickel-plated 9mm Lorcin L9 semiautomatic pistol and a .38-caliber Charter Arms revolver. He began firing at coworkers in several areas of the hotel complex. The attacks occurred in rapid succession near the main entrance, in the lobby, in the restaurant kitchen, near the swimming pool and in an employee work area.
Eric Pedroso, a 29-year-old hotel employee, was shot outside the main entrance. Barbara Carter, 55, was attacked in the lobby near the registration desk. Jose Aguilar, 40, was killed inside the restaurant kitchen, while George Jones, 44, was shot near the hotel swimming pool.
The scattered locations of the shootings created confusion throughout the resort. Guests and employees heard gunfire coming from different sections of the property and attempted to hide or flee. Police initially received reports suggesting that more than one gunman might be involved because witnesses had seen violence in several areas within a very brief period.
Seven people were shot at or near the hotel. Four died and three survived with injuries. One wounded man was reported to be in critical condition, another man suffered a gunshot wound to his leg, and a woman was wounded and required surgery. The surviving victims were not responsible for provoking the attack, and investigators were unable to establish a clear reason why Izquierdo-Leyva targeted particular employees.
Escape and Carjackings
After leaving the hotel, Izquierdo-Leyva confronted 20-year-old bellman Rafael Barrios and stole his white 1990 Honda Accord at gunpoint. He drove away from the resort while officers and emergency medical personnel were beginning to arrive.
Izquierdo-Leyva soon abandoned the Honda and entered the parking lot of a nearby grocery store. There, he approached 56-year-old Dolores Perdomo as she sat in or near her burgundy Mercury automobile. Izquierdo-Leyva attempted to force Perdomo to surrender her vehicle. When she did not immediately comply, he shot and killed her.
Unable to take Perdomo’s vehicle, Izquierdo-Leyva confronted another motorist, Angel Marteliz, and threatened him with a firearm. Marteliz quickly exited his white Chevrolet Celebrity station wagon, allowing Izquierdo-Leyva to steal it. The gunman then continued driving through Tampa as officers searched for the stolen vehicles.
Brief Stop at a Relative’s Home
At approximately 3:40 p.m., Izquierdo-Leyva arrived at a residence at 3023 West Green Street, near Interstate 275. The home belonged to his sister-in-law, Angela Vazquez. A 16-year-old family friend, Nely Rodriguez, was reportedly the only person inside at the time.
Rodriguez later described seeing Izquierdo-Leyva standing near a sink with the water running. He asked where the other members of the family were, then left the residence and drove away in the stolen station wagon. His appearance at the house was brief, and no one there was physically harmed.
Capture
Tampa police officers located Izquierdo-Leyva near Spruce Street and North MacDill Avenue. He was taken into custody less than 30 minutes after the hotel shooting began. The quick arrest prevented him from continuing the rampage or attempting additional carjackings.
Police recovered the firearms connected to the shootings and linked Izquierdo-Leyva to the attacks through eyewitness accounts, physical evidence and the stolen vehicles. He was charged with five murders, multiple attempted murders, aggravated assaults and several completed or attempted carjackings.
Victims Killed on December 30, 1999
- Eric Pedroso, 29 – Killed outside the main entrance of the Radisson Bay Harbor Hotel in Tampa, Florida, on December 30, 1999.
- Barbara Carter, 55 – Killed in the hotel lobby near the registration desk at the Radisson Bay Harbor Hotel on December 30, 1999.
- Jose Aguilar, 40 – Killed inside the restaurant kitchen at the Radisson Bay Harbor Hotel on December 30, 1999.
- George Jones, 44 – Killed near the swimming pool at the Radisson Bay Harbor Hotel on December 30, 1999.
- Dolores Perdomo, 56 – Killed in the parking lot of a nearby grocery store during an attempted carjacking on December 30, 1999.
The Wounded Survivors
Three additional people were wounded during the hotel attack. A 40-year-old man suffered critical injuries, a 43-year-old man was shot in the leg, and a 53-year-old woman suffered a gunshot wound that required surgery. Their identities were not as widely reported as those of the five people who were killed.
The attack produced numerous other potential victims. Investigators alleged that Izquierdo-Leyva fired at or threatened people who escaped injury, including employees, motorists and witnesses encountered during his flight. These acts ultimately resulted in several attempted-murder and aggravated-assault charges in addition to the five murder counts.
Possible Motive
No definitive motive was established for the massacre. Izquierdo-Leyva had been working at the hotel for only a short period, and there was no clear evidence that the five people he killed had been involved in a single dispute with him. Investigators examined his employment history, relationships with coworkers, mental condition and behavior before the shooting.
Reports indicated that some coworkers believed Izquierdo-Leyva had experienced workplace disagreements or believed that other employees had mistreated him. However, the evidence did not reveal a rational grievance that explained the scale of the violence. His actions appeared to involve both attacks on selected hotel employees and impulsive violence against strangers during his escape.
Mental Health Defense
Izquierdo-Leyva’s defense attorneys initially prepared to argue that he was legally insane at the time of the murders. The case was delayed in part because attorneys sought permission to travel to Cuba to investigate his personal and psychiatric history. They wanted to interview relatives and determine whether he had previously displayed symptoms of severe mental illness.
Questions were raised about his emotional condition, unusual behavior and religious beliefs after his visit to Cuba. However, religious practices alone did not establish insanity or explain the murders. The central legal question was whether Izquierdo-Leyva understood the nature and wrongfulness of his actions when he committed the crimes.
Guilty Plea and Sentencing
On April 10, 2002, Izquierdo-Leyva pleaded guilty to 20 criminal charges. The charges included five counts of first-degree murder, seven counts of attempted first-degree murder with a firearm, three counts of aggravated assault with a firearm, two counts of armed carjacking and three counts of attempted armed carjacking.
By pleading guilty, Izquierdo-Leyva avoided a trial in which prosecutors could have sought the death penalty. On April 15, 2002, he was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. The sentence ensured that he would remain incarcerated for the rest of his life.
Aftermath
The Tampa hotel massacre shocked residents because it occurred at a prominent tourist destination during a busy holiday week. The victims had been performing ordinary jobs or completing routine errands when Izquierdo-Leyva attacked them. Four were hotel employees, while Dolores Perdomo was a stranger who encountered the gunman only because he wanted her automobile.
The murders became one of Tampa’s most notorious workplace shootings. The attack demonstrated how quickly violence inside a workplace could expand into a broader public rampage involving motorists, bystanders and people at nearby businesses. Although Izquierdo-Leyva was captured within minutes, five people had been killed and several others had suffered lasting physical and emotional injuries.
Legacy of the Case
The events of December 30, 1999, remain remembered as the Tampa hotel massacre. The case is distinguished by the movement of the gunman through multiple areas of the hotel, the murder of four coworkers, and the killing of a fifth victim during an attempted escape. The violence had no clearly established motive and ended only after a rapid police search through the surrounding Tampa neighborhoods.
Silvio Izquierdo-Leyva’s conviction closed the criminal proceedings, but it did not provide the victims’ families with a complete explanation for why their loved ones were targeted. Eric Pedroso, Barbara Carter, Jose Aguilar, George Jones and Dolores Perdomo became the five fatal victims of a brief but devastating rampage that unfolded during the final days of 1999.
