Store owner shot in back during afternoon robbery

By LINDA GIBSON and KEVIN GRAHAM

© St. Petersburg Times,
published June 2, 2001

TAMPA -- The owner of a liquor store was shot in the back Friday afternoon after two robbers burst into the store and ordered the owner and her customers to lie on the floor.

Maria C. Aviles, 61, was talking to the robbers in Spanish at the Fiesta Liquor store at 3001 N Florida Ave. when they fired, witnesses said.

She was in fair condition Friday night at St. Joseph's Hospital.

"She was shot twice," said Yesenia Rodriguez, 24, Aviles' daughter. "One bullet went into her breast and grazed her lung. We still don't know where the other bullet hit."

The two men entered the store at about 3:45 p.m., said police spokeswoman Katie Hughes. They ordered Aviles, an assistant and a handful of customers to lie on the floor.

During the 15 minutes the two were in the store, other customers wandered in and found themselves in the middle of a robbery.

Rodriguez said the robbers apparently knew that Aviles kept a gun in the store. They ordered Aviles to hand over the .38-caliber semiautomatic pistol, and used it to shoot her, Rodriguez said.

Antiqua Vega, 26, had come in to pay her monthly tab. One of the robbers accosted her at the door.

They took wallets, money and jewelry from the customers. They also smashed the cash register and ransacked a small office in the back.

"They took between $800 and $1,000," said the victim's husband, 49-year-old Dioniles Aviles. "Everything was a wreck."

The robbers fled in a white, compact car, taking with them the store's surveillance videotape.

Neither man wore a mask or gloves. Victims said they were unable to give detailed descriptions.

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