Police are searching for a man who went into a northwest Miami-Dade County restaurant Tuesday morning and fatally shot a woman who worked there.  

The shooting took place about 11 a.m. at the Casa Latina Cafeteria at 19541 NW 57th Ave. 

Co-workers said a man came in and asked for the woman, then shot her and left, according to police.  

Employee Victor Rodriguez, who said he was working at a computer in the restaurant at the time of the shooting, said he heard the gunman yell at the victim, "I told you so." 

After the shooting, Rodriguez said that as the man was leaving, the man told him, "I don't have a beef with you." 

Rodriguez said the gunman was the victim's husband, but police have not confirmed the relationship between the suspect and the woman. 

"She's the cook, and she was always in the back," said a witness. "They say that he came in and he asked for her, and they told him she was in the back, and he went to the back and shot her." 

Paramedics arranged for the woman to be flown to a hospital, but she died before it was possible, police said.

Chris Debiase, who works at a nearby dentist's office, said he learned of the shooting when a restaurant employee, who had been preparing lunch, ran down the alley and to his office's back door. 

"Just scared out of her mind -- she still had her knife in her hand and everything," Debiase said. "She said in Spanish, 'They killed her, they killed her.'"

Police have not released the identity of the victim, saying only that she was a 39-year-old woman. 

Miami-Dade police identified the person of interest as Reinaldo Cabrera Hernandez, 52. Police said they are searching for Hernandez and said he may be driving a green 1997 Mercury Villager with license plate No. 229TMJ. 

Police said they believe the victim and Hernandez had been in an argument at about 5 a.m. at the restaurant, and that Hernandez returned later and shot her. 

Maria Zumeta, a friend of the victim and the person of interest, said they have been married for years and have a teenage daughter. Zumeta said Hernandez was at her house, as he always is, at 7 a.m., drinking coffee and smoking a cigar. If he was planning to kill his wife, Zumeta said he did not show it.

Zumeta said the victim was a good person, a good mother and a good wife.