Stabbing Victim Was Biking from Maryland to Florida to Propose

By Sherri Lonon

Kevin Adorno, 32, got on his bicycle about a month ago, intent on riding it from Maryland to Miami to propose to his girlfriend.

He never made it.

Police in Vero Beach, FL, say Adorno stopped off at a McDonald’s in Vero Beach Sept. 1 and was stabbed to death by another customer. The Vero Beach Police Department says it was notified of the stabbing around 9:30 p.m. when a witness called 911 to say a customer had been attacked and was lying inside the restaurant. The man who held the knife, police said, had run across the street in the direction of a nearby Burger King.

When police arrived, they found Adorno on the McDonald’s floor, near the bathrooms.

“It was evident from the amount of blood that he had been stabbed several times in the chest and arm,” police said in an email to media. While rescue attempts were made, Adorno died a short time later at a local hospital.

Police say Rene Herrera Cruz, 59, was arrested at the Burger King across the street from where the attack happened.

“Cruz admitted to stabbing Adorno,” police said. Cruz “thought Adorno was directing other people via cell phone to attack him and Cruz therefore felt threatened and attacked Adorno.”

Witnesses to the stabbing say they saw Adorno walk out to McDonald’s parking lot to use his cell phone. They then watched as Cruz approached him, stabbed him and fled across U.S. Highway 1.

That last call Adorno made was to his girlfriend, who was on the phone with him when the attack happened. Police found the engagement ring on Adorno’s body after the attack.

Adorno was from Farmington, CT, according to The Courant. The bike trek was on Adorno’s “bucket list,” Newsday quoted Vero Beach Police Chief David Currey as saying.

Adorno worked as a graphic designer in Connecticut. He began his 1,100-mile trek on Aug. 12, reports WFSB TV, and it was the second half of an East Coast ride he started in Maine about a year ago.

»Photo Credit: Kevin Adorno was on his way from Maryland to Miami to propose to his girlfriend when he was fatally stabbed. Photo courtesy of the Vero Beach Police Department.