Police: Man Shot, Killed Estranged Wife In Hialeah Gardens
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HIALEAH GARDENS (CBSMiami) - A Hialeah Gardens mother was ambushed and murdered right in front of her home and in front of her four and eight year old daughters.
The girls' father is now locked up for the crime and it turns out this young mom had tried to seek protection from him before, and was denied.
"She was an excellent mother," lamented an unidentified family friend who knows Diana Castro well.
She told CBS4's Natalia Zea that Diana Castro lived for her children, and sought to protect them from harm. She had left her estranged husband, Josue Castro and moved in with her family in Hialeah Gardens.
The shooting happened at 8186 NW 99th Terrace. Josue Castro, 38, was waiting for 35-year old Diane Castro when she came home Thursday night from Walmart around 10 p.m.
"He approached her and shot her once. And her mother was here too, and asked the mother to take away the two little girls that were with her, and then shot her five more times in the face," said the friend.
Castro had recently sought protection from her husband of 14 years. She told a court earlier this year that Castro is a former Navy Marine officer who suffers from PTSD, and schizophrenia, and had numerous guns. She said he threatened to kill her.
The court denied her restraining order, saying there was no just cause.
The family friend said Castro may have been triggered after a visit this week with his daughters.
"The girls were afraid of him, the little girls and they didn't want to go, and that may have been what triggered him," she said.
A few hours after the murder, Castro went to the Miami-Dade police department's Mid-West Station and turned himself in. He reportedly confessed to shooting his wife during questioning. He is charged with first-degree murder.