TAMPA — Antelmo Ontiveros vowed to kill his girlfriend, Banesa Martinez Herrera, if she ever let his wife know he was a cheater, her best friend said.
At 2 a.m. Thursday, at an outdoor barbecue and party in Clair-Mel, Herrera was fatally shot, and Ontiveros, 28, was soon wanted on a charge of second-degree murder.
A man who tried to save Herrera's life was wounded, deputies said.
By Saturday, Ontiveros still hadn't been found or arrested.
Herrera, 30, was a bubbly mother of three boys, ages 13, 11 and 7. She worked alongside her best friend, Liliana Lagunas, at Catrinas, a Mexican restaurant in South Tampa.
Herrera had sent her boys to stay with their grandmother in Fort Meade over the summer so she and Lagunas could work extra hours to save money and rent a three-bedroom home.
"A room for me, a room for her and a room for the boys," Lagunas, 22, said Saturday while on a break from serving people at the restaurant. "That was our plan. . . . She was like a sister to me."
Lagunas said her friend had been dating Ontiveros only a few months. He won her over by giving her money for the children. It wasn't long before it was clear he was aggressive and drank too often, Lagunas said.
Herrera had tried to end things. Ontiveros showed up at the cookout Thursday uninvited, friends said.
Lagunas' brother, Christian Picazo-Guzman, is the man who tried to push the gun away when Herrera was shot.
He was shot in the leg — his bones are shattered — and is recovering at a hospital. Lagunas was at work during the cookout, but after talking extensively with her brother, she recounted what had happened:
Ontiveros saw Herrera talking with another man at the cookout and got jealous. He told Herrera he was going to leave, which didn't bother her much. She wanted him out of her life.
Herrera had already told Ontiveros if he started coming back around, she would tell his wife he cheated on her. When Ontiveros started to argue with her, Herrera said again she was going to tell. He taunted her, told her to do it right in front of him. Herrera called Ontiveros' wife and told her she wanted her to know the truth and that she was done with Ontiveros.
Lagunas said that's when Herrera was shot, and when her brother tried to push the gun away, he was shot, too.
Investigators said Ontiveros fled in a green 2002 Nissan Altima.
"I don't really want to go out at all," Lagunas said. "He knows where I go, where I live. . . . He knows I'm the one putting his picture all over Facebook."
She said she feels as if that's all she can do: make sure people know his face.
She saw a post on Facebook that said Ontiveros was at a club Friday night. She said she has heard rumors he plans to go to Texas and then to Mexico.
"That can't happen," she said. "I want him to pay."
The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office described Ontiveros as armed and dangerous. He's being sought on a warrant for second-degree murder with a firearm and attempted second-degree murder with a firearm. A Sheriff's Office spokesman had no new information about the investigation Saturday.
Keep up with Tampa Bay’s top headlines
Subscribe to our free DayStarter newsletter
You’re all signed up!
Want more of our free, weekly newsletters in your inbox? Let’s get started.
Explore all your optionsUnder the bright red roof at Catrinas, Lagunas is doing her best to keep herself together. She can no longer bring out plates full of tacos and tamales alongside her best friend.
Her brother, who's a cook there, was expected to need months of recovery.
"We are shocked" Catrinas co-owner Karol Ortiz said. "Literally, three employees involved.
"We just want to get justice because no one deserves to die that way."
Contact Sara DiNatale at sdinatale@tampabay.com. Follow @sara_dinatale.