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NARRATOR: In 1993, five
men were ambushed at work as they got out of their car. One man was killed, two
others critically injured.
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The gunman left behind a
few spent shell casings, but little else. Forensic scientists
would eventually
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find a clue in
some scraped metal, revealing a history that
someone had tried to erase.
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[theme music] Miguel Roque met his wife on
a beach in their native Cuba. The couple moved
to Miami, Florida,
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in 1991, where they had their
first child, a daughter. KENIA ROQUE: She was beautiful.
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She's very beautiful. And then he was worried
how to-- to give her the-- the good life to her.
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NARRATOR: Miguel was willing to
work hard to get the good life. In 1993 the talented
mechanical engineer
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landed a job at the
Aircraft Modular plant that made airplane parts. The 160 employees were
a tight-knit group.
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And Miguel quickly
became one of the family. -I was very impressed that
he was here such a short time
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from his native
country, you know, Cuba. And he knew how
to speak English. He was a go-getter.
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He was a go-getter. He knew what he wanted,
and he was going for it. NARRATOR: Miguel and
four other employees
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were identified by management
as having the potential for advancement, so the
company asked the men
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to attend computer
classes at night. The men all went to class
together and formed a carpool.
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October 14, 1993, was
a night like any other. After class, the atmosphere
was light and friendly.
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-I guess we were getting real
comfortable in the class. And we were just joking,
different things about work
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and just-- just funny stuff. NARRATOR: When the car
returned to the company parking
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lot, the driver, Jorge
Sanchez, was the first one out. Doug Zamora was the second.
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Then someone started shooting. Zamora was hit in the arm. He immediately reached
for his own gun.
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Sanchez crawled under
the car for cover. Zamora was hit again and ran
towards the factory door.
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Ray Cruz was also hit. Another shot exploded
through the windshield and hit Miguel Roque
sitting in the backseat.
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Moussa owned a handgun and
frantically tried to load it. GEORGE MOUSSA: I started
shooting out the front,
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and the gun jammed. NARRATOR: Another blast
went through the roof and hit Miguel a second time.
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Inside, employees
tried to help Doug Zamora, who was
quickly losing blood. GEORGE MOUSSA: At the same
time that I was talking to him,
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Gerardo Manso came
from behind me. I turned around with
my gun, aiming at him. NARRATOR: Manso was
almost a casualty.
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Luckily, Moussa didn't
pull the trigger. Manso was a
night-shift supervisor who heard the shooting
and rushed to help.
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When police and
emergency crews arrived, they first helped
Ray Cruz, who was outside and bleeding,
but still alive.
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Doug Zamora was unconscious. Miguel Roque was
still in the back seat and was pronounced
dead at the scene.
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KENIA ROQUE: My husband
was the best man that I know in my whole life,
the best man that I know,
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the best person that I knew,
the best father that I saw, the best thing that I
have in my whole life.
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I lose him. NARRATOR: Apparently,
the shots were fired from the roof
of the factory.
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There were spent shotgun
shells but no sign of the gun or the gunman. Police searched the
area by ground and air.
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And they even shut
down a nearby highway. But the gunman had
made a clean getaway.
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Investigators had two questions. Who would shoot five employees? And what was the motive?
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As police investigated the
shooting of the five employees outside of the
airplane factory, they
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found evidence that the shooter
had been on the factory roof and made his getaway down
the ladder in the back.
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The shells found
on the roof told investigators the weapon
used was a shotgun. The shells were
double-ought buckshot.
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Each shell contained nine
pellets about the same size as a 32-caliber bullet. -They've been shot nine times
at once, because each pellet
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enters the body and
does a lot of damage. The pellet travels at
about a thousand feet
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a second coming
out of the muzzle, so it's like being shot
nine times at once. NARRATOR: The shooting
killed one man, Miguel Roque.
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Douglas Zamora and
Ray Cruz were alive, but in critical condition. Two others, Jorge Sanchez
and George Moussa,
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escaped without injury. -I was angry because, these are
the people that I worked with.
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They were my responsibility,
and somebody had hurt them. And I was just-- I don't
know if it was my adrenaline,
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but I was really angry.
I wanted to find the shooter. NARRATOR: Police began
their investigation
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by asking about
any recent firings or disgruntled
current employees. One of the supervisors working
on the night of the shooting
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reported seeing two or three
men in a white Cadillac cruising the factory grounds.
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This was particularly
troubling since one of the shooting
victims, Ray Cruz, had a possible link
to organized crime.
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-Ray Cruz had a family member
who was currently in a witness protection program testifying
against major drug traffickers
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who had assassinated some
government witnesses. NARRATOR: Police wondered
whether the factory shooting
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was a message to
the Cruz family, warning Ray Cruz's brother
not to testify at that trial.
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As police started to
investigate that theory, a woman who lived directly
behind the factory called
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to say she had found
a gun in her yard. -Because of the police
activity in the area,
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she didn't come outside. She was fearful that there
was something going on and that she should stay inside.
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The next morning, when she
came outside to feed her cats, she noticed a shotgun,
and she called police.
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NARRATOR: There were no
fingerprints on the gun. And the serial number
had been filed off,
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making it virtually
impossible to trace. THOMAS QUIRK: It's what we
call a robbery gun, where it's
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easily concealable by
removing part of the barrel and removing the
stock from the weapon.
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Then it's easier to
hide on a person. NARRATOR: To see if this was
the gun used in the factory
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shooting, Thomas Quirk
conducted a ballistic analysis. Most guns have lands and
grooves inside the gun barrel
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which leave distinctive
marks on the bullets. But the barrel of a
shotgun is smooth.
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-Without having a
rifled bore, there are no marks left
behind on the pellets. We can't identify the pellets.
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We can only identify the
shot shells themselves. NARRATOR: When a
shotgun is fired,
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the expanding gasses force the
shell casings back against what is called the breach
face of the gun.
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-That shotgun will leave marks
on the primer of the shot shells over and over and over.
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These marks will be the same. So that's what we call the
fingerprint of the weapon.
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NARRATOR: A
microscopic comparison showed that the
ballistic fingerprint of the sawed-off shotgun
matched the markings
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on the shells found
on the factory roof. Although this was
the murder weapon, it wasn't the type used
by organized crime.
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-It's been more up close
and personal, with handguns, so that they are
sure that they hit
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their target, their
intended target. A shotgun is a good
close-up weapon. But from a long distance,
because of the way
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the projectiles
scatter, you may not necessarily hit your target. It didn't appear to be
the type of scenario
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where you have a person
on a roof with a shotgun. It just didn't seem to fit. NARRATOR: The gun and
shells were the only
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physical evidence
investigators had. But the gun still
had a story to tell for those who knew
how to read it.
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Ballistic tests had
identified the gun used to kill Miguel Roque and
wound Doug Zamora and Ray Cruz.
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The question now was,
who owned the gun? The serial number
had been removed. -Every mark, the serial
number, the brand, the model,
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the gauge, everything was
ground off the weapon. So we had no idea who
the manufacturer was
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or any of the information,
the model or serial number. NARRATOR: The first
step was to determine
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the make and model of the gun. The gun vault at the
Miami-Dade Police Crime Lab holds over 2,000 firearms of
various makes and calibers.
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Experienced firearms examiners
thought it was probably a Remington Model 870
shotgun, so they compared it
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to the Remington
870 in their vault. -And sure enough,
it turned out to be a 12-gauge Remington
pump shotgun.
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They're-- they're
fairly popular here. And matter of fact, our
police officers carry them.
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NARRATOR: The Model 870
is popular everywhere. It's one of the bestselling
shotguns ever made.
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Millions have been sold. The killer knew that
tracing such a gun without a serial number
would be all but impossible.
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-But he didn't know what
the crime laboratory can do. NARRATOR: By law, all firearms
sold in the United States
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must have a serial number
stamped into the metal. The number is recorded
at the time of sale,
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allowing any gun to be traced
back to the original phone. -When they stamp a serial
number into the weapon,
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it compresses the
metal of the weapon. And it makes the metal
underneath the serial numbers
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harder than the metal around it. And that's key for serial
number restoration. NARRATOR: Quirk smoothed the
area of the serial number
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with a sander to
create an even surface. He then applied a strong
acid to the steel.
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The smooth surface ensures that
the acid eats the steel evenly. But the area where the metal is
compressed, the area directly
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beneath the serial
number that was removed, is denser and resists the acid. THOMAS QUIRK: And the
next thing you'll see
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will be white ghost numbers
of the serial number raising up through that metal. NARRATOR: With the
recovered serial number,
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Detective McColman
contacted the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,
and Firearms. They said the manufacturer
had sold the gun
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to a local sporting goods store. -Subsequently went
to that store. We obtained the ATF form that
the purchaser filled out.
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NARRATOR: The name on the
form was Gerardo Manso. Manso was a night-shift
supervisor at the airplane
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factory and was one
of the first employees on the scene on the
night of the shooting.
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-We also brought the form to
our questioned documents section in our forensic lab.
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The signature on both his work
records and the form matched. NARRATOR: Investigators
discovered that Manso had been
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angry because others at work
had been promoted ahead of him. One of those promoted
was Doug Zamora,
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a victim in the shooting -I was the foreman
of that department. And he thought that he
deserved that position.
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Unfortunately, he didn't get it. I believe it's because of
his-- his lack of-- not being
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able to communicate with
vendors due to the fact that he didn't
speak any English.
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That's probably why
I got the position, not because I knew
more than him. NARRATOR: But everyone
believed Manso
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got over the disappointment
since he didn't appear to harbor any
lingering resentment.
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-As soon as all this happened,
the one person I turned was-- was Manso. And I said, Manso, you
have to help me now here
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with everything that's
going on, you know. These gentlemen are
in the hospital. You have to take over.
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So during that week,
he was the person who was making sure the
machines were running.
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NARRATOR: Gerardo
Manso denied he was involved in the shooting. It was Manso's closest
friend, Miguel Roque,
00:14:24
who was killed in the shooting. And Manso had an alibi, since
he was seen in the factory
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immediately following
the shooting. But a background check
revealed that Manso had been a suspect in
another shooting death.
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The victim allegedly was having
an affair with Manso's wife. Police now wondered whether
this was a coincidence
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or a pattern of
revenge and murder. Police now suspected Gerardo
Manso in the shooting death
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of Miguel Roque and injuring
Doug Zamora and Ray Cruz. The murder weapon was
a sawed-off shotgun
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found in the yard of a woman
who lived next to the factory. After raising the
serial number, police
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discovered it was
purchased by Gerardo Manso. And Manso had an
interesting background.
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-We ran Gerardo Manso
through that system, and it hit on a previous
homicide, a homicide of Mr.
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Gutierrez which occurred,
I believe, in 1991. NARRATOR: The victim,
Luis Gutierrez,
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had been gunned down
while in his car on a deserted stretch of road. Manso was question because
Gutierrez was allegedly
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having an affair
with Manso's wife. Despite a strong motive,
no physical evidence
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linked Manso to the
murder, although Gutierrez had been killed with a shotgun. Police asked Manso to
come down to police
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headquarters for questioning. Manso agreed. After questioning him
briefly, detectives
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asked him to take a polygraph
or lie detector test. Manso consented. Manso was asked
if he knew who was
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responsible for the
shooting and if he was the man who killed Miguel Roque. -His answer, of course,
was no, he didn't know,
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and no, he didn't kill anybody. There was clear deception
indicated on the polygraph
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to those responses. NARRATOR: Confronted with
the polygraph results, Manso broke down and confessed.
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But he said he missed
his intended targets and instead killed his
best friend, Miguel Roque.
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-And he told the detectives
in his confession that he was very upset
that Mr. Roque died,
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because he was not
the intended target. In fact, he was the only friend
that Manso had in the business.
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He indicated his
targets were George Sanchez and George Moussa. -I think that he
regretted that he
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didn't kill the right people. Other than that, that's the
only remorse that he expressed.
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NARRATOR: Detectives
also questioned Manso about the shooting
death of Luis Gutierrez.
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-He goes, oh, yeah. You know, two years
ago I killed my wife's lover, too, with the same gun.
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-He fired from
inside his vehicle. Therefore the casing would have
remained inside his vehicle.
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So the only thing on that
scene were projectiles from the shotgun, which
cannot be traced.
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NARRATOR: Manso was charged with
two murders, Luis Gutierrez, and his co-worker Miguel Roque.
00:17:48
He was also charged with
the attempted murder of the other four men
in the parking lot.
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Prosecutors believe
that what motivated the shooting was
resentment at being passed over for advancement.
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-As Manso did not
speak English, he wasn't invited to go to
the training session.
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He saw this as a
threat to his ability to go forward in his occupation. And so he resented the
people that were going.
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NARRATOR: He especially resented
his supervisors, George Moussa and Jorge Sanchez,
for holding him back.
00:18:27
So after hours, he used
the machinery at work to cut down the
barrel of his shotgun
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and to grind off
the serial number. On the night of the
shooting, he snuck up to the roof with the
easily concealed weapon
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and ambushed the men he
thought were in his way. [gunfire] NARRATOR: Although Manso says
that Sanchez and Moussa were
00:18:57
his intended targets,
prosecutors don't believe it, since he used a shotgun
instead of a rifle.
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After the shooting,
he threw the gun off the roof into one of the
yards near the factory, then
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hurried down to the factory
floor to create his alibi. -There's a ladder that led
to the top of the building.
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He must have scurried down. In the confusion,
he was able to run out and appear to be concerned.
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Now, this would only
take a couple of seconds. NARRATOR: When George
Moussa saw Manso immediately
00:19:33
after the shooting, he had no
idea that Manso was the gunman. -I had my gun drawn.
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And Manso was right there. Had I known it was him, the
shooter, I would have shot him.
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There's no doubt in my mind. -I believe that Mr.
Manso is a dangerous man. And he deals with his
frustrations through violence.
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-It seemed to be the only
way he can resolve things, is to eliminate obstacles. NARRATOR: Gerardo
Manso was found guilty
00:20:05
of murder and attempted
murder, and was sentenced to consecutive life
terms in prison.
00:20:12
Kenia Roque shares keepsakes
and memories of Miguel with their daughter, Laura. Laura was just 18 months
old when her father died,
00:20:21
the father who worked long
hours to give her a better life in America but never
got to share it with her.
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-Sometimes I feel like it's
a bad dream that I had. It's not real. I'm not here.
00:20:35
It was another life. But the only choice that
I have is keep busy. Keep tired, keep busy, study,
working, doing many things.
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Don't let my mind any
space to think about that. NARRATOR: Doug Zamora and Ray
Cruz survived their injuries.
00:21:03
Doug's arm was almost
amputated, but doctors were able to save it. The shooting
changed the victims.
00:21:11
Doug Zamora quit his
job at the factory and went into law enforcement. He now works as a
corrections officer.
00:21:20
George Moussa, impressed
by the EMTs who responded to the shooting,
also quit his job
00:21:27
and is training
to become a medic. Manso believed that by
scratching the serial number
00:21:34
from his weapon he would
remove all traces of ownership. But forensic technology
proved him wrong.
00:21:43
-The more forensics
that you've got, of course, the better
it's going to be. Forensics really don't lie.
00:21:50
It's-- you know,
they don't-- really, they don't make the kind of
mistakes that witnesses make.
00:21:55
So it's really pretty exciting. THOMAS QUIRK: We linked the
casings to the gun, the gun
00:22:00
to the man. [theme music]