Marin Co. restaurant pulling for chef randomly shot
MARIN COUNTY, Calif. (KTVU) - A Marin County restaurant is pulling for its longtime chef who was shot, out of the blue, as he arrived home from work late one night.
Jose Hernandez, 48, is recovering after suffering five gunshot wounds.
He has been the chef at Fradelizio's in Fairfax for almost three decades.
"I get out of my car, and before I open my gate, I feel like somebody is looking at me," Hernandez told KTVU, at his San Pablo home, where he is using a walker to get around.
It was just before 1 a.m. on August 31 and Hernandez was arriving home from the restaurant at his usual time. The two men who approached him never said a word.
"I asked them, 'what's going on?' and they don't say anything. Just starting shooting," Hernandez recounted. He had been talking to his wife Judith on the phone during his drive home, and she was still on the phone when she heard the shots and her husband's screams.
"We didn't know how many times he was hit, it sounded like boom, boom, boom, boom," Judith recalled. "I held his head and I could feel that it was bleeding."
Three bullets had pierced the skin on the back of his neck. Falling to the ground, Hernandez was also shot in the foot.
But the bullet that might have killed him went through one side of his abdomen and out the other. Then the shooters left him for dead on his driveway.
"He's very much an upstanding person who doesn't appear to be involved in any criminal conduct," San Pablo Police Commander Brian Bubar told KTVU. Investigators aren't sure about motive. It may have been an aborted robbery.
His car, wallet and phone were untouched.
"If someone were to get interrupted, it wouldn't be uncommon to leave items behind, but that's something we just don't know at this point," concluded Bubar.
While Hernandez was in the hospital, his restaurant family started cooking up some help for him.
To assist with medical expenses, they created a "GoFundMe" account that has raised almost $14,000.00 so far.
"He's the greatest chef that's ever been, and he still is," waiter Jovani Pardini told KTVU, " and we want him back." "We miss you Jose, come back soon", called out another cook, in the busy kitchen preparing dinners.
Doctors say it will be several months before Hernandez might return to work, but he's determined.
"I miss cooking, my friends and everybody over there, yes of course," he smiled.
For now, he rests, surrounded by family, and grateful so many people are pulling for him.
"He says, 'I can't believe that a lot of people love me.' I said, 'believe it because it's true," observed wife Judith.
"Thank you to everybody who supports me now, I love them," concluded Jose.
San Pablo Police are eager for any tips that might lead them to the two gunmen.