So Sad…

Orlando — The Publix supermarket where a man gunned down his wife, a cashier, before dozens of frightened customers re-opened for business Wednesday as more details emerged about the moments surrounding the murder-suicide.

Anicia Yankton, 34, died early Wednesday morning at Orlando Regional Medical Center, four hours after she was shot in the head by Andreau Yankton, 62, police said. He was the target of two prior domestic-violence complaints, according to Orange County Circuit Court records.

Andreau Yankton approached his wife’s checkout lane about 8 p.m. Tuesday and shot her, then fled to the parking lot on the corner of South Orange Avenue and Pineloch Street, south of downtown Orlando, police said.

An Orlando police patrol officer confronted the gunman, who then shot himself in the chest, police said. Andreau Yankton was pronounced dead that night at the hospital.

The couple was estranged, Orlando police spokesman Sgt. Pat Guckian said. It is unclear when they married.

On Wednesday, Publix customers said the moments after the shooting were filled with panic and confusion.

Ron Legler, 40, had stopped at the supermarket on his way home from his job as the head of a theatrical organization when the gunfire erupted.

Legler was talking on his cell phone in the cleaning products aisle. He heard a loud “crack.”

Then there were screams: “Oh my God. Get out of the store.”

Customers dropped to the floor and crawled for cover. Legler abandoned his cart and headed for double doors that led to a storage room. He said he held them open so a group of about 10 women could escape to an emergency exit on the building’s north side.

Before they were clear of the building, they heard more gunfire — this time from outside. The gunman was only steps away. Legler worried the shooter was picking off fleeing customers.

“Everyone go back in! Go back in!” he shouted. They huddled in the storage room, re-arranging boxes so they could hide. Two older women clung to his arms in fear.

Then store room doors burst open. A female bagger ran in, screaming: “She’s shot in the head, she’s shot in the head.”

The bagger provided details to the group, saying the gunman walked up behind her as she worked a checkout line near the entrance. He fired over her shoulder, hitting the cashier. The shot was so loud, the bagger said, she had trouble hearing.

Then the store fell silent. Customers were asked to go to the front of the store.

Counselors provided to employees

Legler and the women in the storeroom arrived there to find Anicia Yankton — who called herself “Anica” — lying between checkout lanes eight and nine near the store entrance. Blood covered the groceries.

It was as if they had entered a movie scene, Legler said.

“You feel that that someone is going to shout ‘Cut,’ ” Legler said.

Bill Roth, 50, of Orlando comes to the Publix daily and knows many of the workers, he said. Yankton was quiet, but was always friendly and smiled.

The cashier recently told Roth she was from the Philippines.

“She’s just a good lady,” Roth said. “She’s a newer face here.”

Co-workers said that Anicia Yankton had worked at the store for a few months. Publix spokeswoman Maria Brous did not confirm her hire date. Workers were told not to speak to the media.

The store typically has on-site security — usually off-duty law-enforcement officers — but none were there at the time of the shooting. One off-duty officer left the store before the shooting, according to Brous.

Publix provided grief counselors for store employees.

Gunman Andreau Yankton, a state-licensed insurance salesman, had a troubled past. Two ex-wives had petitioned for domestic-violence injunctions against him.

Marietta Yankton married Andreau in 1968 and divorced him in 1997, according to Orange County court records. She petitioned for an injunction in 2002, but was denied.

Attempts to reach Andreau Yankton’s relatives were unsuccessful. A man who answered the phone at Marietta Yankton’s residence declined comment.

Court records also show ex-wife Teresita Caneda successfully petitioned for a domestic-violence injunction in 1996. The two married in 1997 and divorced in 2003.

Petition details were not available.

Andreau Yankton struggled with financial problems during the past decade. Court records showed he filed for bankruptcy in Orlando in 2000, and his bank foreclosed upon his east Orange County home in 2007.

Murder-suicides in Central Florida

Wednesday’s murder-suicide was only the latest in Central Florida in recent months.

Most of the killers and their victims were in troubled relationships. Social-services agencies have warned that the region could see an increase in domestic violence because of economic troubles.

Demand for services is up 30 percent this year, said Carol Wick, director of Harbor House, an Orlando shelter for victims of domestic violence. Historically, Orange County has had one of the highest domestic-violence-homicide rates in the state of Florida, Wick said.

Last month, Cocoa resident Alissa Blanton, 23, was gunned down by a man who stalked her at her home and workplace, the AT&T Wireless Call Center near the University of Central Florida. Roger Troy of Cocoa Beach, who had met Blanton when she worked at a Hooters restaurant, fatally shot himself after he killed the newlywed.

On Dec. 15, a Sanford man fatally shot his wife and then took his own life. In July, a 34-year-old man in Deltona shot and killed his former longtime girlfriend and then himself. In June, a father fatally shot his wife and two children inside their Heathrow home and then killed himself.

Data show that the danger is acute once a victim has tried to end a relationship with a batterer, Wick said.

“Nationally, we know that it is the number one time when a woman is most likely to be killed,” she said. “Just because you’ve left doesn’t mean the danger has gone away.”

From: Palm Beach Post