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Orlando Sentinel
Orlando Sentinel
National
Grace Toohey

Suspect in US immigration office shooting fired gun as victim lay on the ground, records say

ORLANDO, Fla. — Alberto Rivero-Milian told police he arrived at 8 a.m. Monday to the Orlando office of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, where he waited in the parking lot for his ex-wife and her new boyfriend for almost an hour and half, according to newly released court records in the case.

When they arrived just after 9 a.m. for her scheduled naturalization appointment, his ex-wife said she “was looking around nervously for her ex-husbands’ vehicle, but did not observe it,” according to the report. Last year, she had ended her 25-year relationship with Rivero-Milian after years of physical and mental abuse, she told police, and had only started dating Alberto Dominguez-Ortiz in the last few months, the affidavit said.

But when Rivero-Milian saw his ex-wife walk toward the building at about 9:30 a.m., he approached Dominguez-Ortiz, who stayed behind at their car, the report said.

“Within minutes of her standing in line, she heard her boyfriend Dominguez-Ortiz yelling to ‘Call 911,’” Rivero-Milian’s arrest report said. “As she turned around to see why he was yelling, she observed her ex-husband, Alberto Rivero-Milian with a dark colored firearm in his hand.”

Fatal shooting outside Orlando U.S. immigration building was ‘domestic in nature,’ police say

The altercation between the two men quickly ended when Rivero-Milian shot Dominguez-Ortiz, police said. The woman, who the Orlando Sentinel is not identifying because she is the alleged victim of domestic violence, said she saw Rivero-Milian shoot her boyfriend “at point blank range,” then said he stood over his body and yelled that she was “next,” the affidavit said.

After interviewing other witnesses, police determined that Rivero-Milian “fired several shots at Dominguez-Ortiz, ... causing him to fall to the ground,” the report said. “Rivero-Milian then stood over him while he was crawling, and fired several more shots, striking Dominguez-Ortiz several times.”

Security staff at the immigration office then pulled the woman inside the building for safety, the report said. She was not injured.

Rivero-Milian got back in his vehicle, and drove away.

Dominguez-Ortiz, 52, died at the scene.

Orlando Police officers responding to the shooting spotted Rivero-Milian’s vehicle on the road, the report said, but he “was able to evade officers and they lost visual of the vehicle for a brief period of time.” But soon after, officers located his vehicle parked on a street in Kissimmee, about 15 miles south of the Orlando immigration office. He soon surrendered to police from inside a relative’s home.

In interviews with police, the woman said about two weeks ago she found the notice for the naturalization appointment — which was initially sent to her ex-husband’s residence — placed on the front door of the home where she was staying, noting it was “partially lit on fire on the edge,” the report said. After she got the document, she said she received several threatening texts from Rivero-Milian.

She also said that since she ended their relationship about a year ago, “he had made repeated threats to her both in person and through numerous phone calls and text messages on a regular basis,” including threats to “cause harm to her and kill her,” the report said. She said she had contacted law enforcement about the threats “numerous times,” though the Sentinel was not able to immediately confirm any such reports or related arrests.

Milian-Rivero was initially arrested in Osceola County, but transferred to the Orange County jail Thursday. A county judge ordered him held without bond at a hearing Friday.

Milian-Rivero told police that he’d recently been served a “no-contact order” for his ex-wife, so when he got her naturalization appointment notice, he gave it to a family member, the report said. The Sentinel was not able to immediately confirm when or from where the no-contact order was issued.

Rivero-Milian told police his relationship with his ex-wife “was cordial and they had remained friendly,” but said after she started dating her boyfriend, Dominguez-Ortiz had actually started harassing him. He said he went to meet Dominguez-Ortiz Monday morning so they could “talk out their issues like men,” but said when he approached him and they started fighting, he was worried that Dominguez-Ortiz had a weapon, so he fired his once at the ground then once at him.

No witnesses saw Dominguez-Ortiz with a weapon at any time during the interaction, the report said.

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