Cops find dead man after neighbors complain of odor

DELRAY BEACH Police went to the Linton Ridge apartments last Thursday because an anonymous caller reported hearing shots fired.

When they returned on Sunday, it was because neighbors were complaining of a foul odor.

Inside Apt. G-10, Delray Beach officers found the body of 29-year-old Tyler Pearson. He had been shot to death in his own apartment, police said.

Pearson’s death is being investigated as a homicide. A possible motive has not been disclosed.

“I want to find out who and why,” Pearson’s girlfriend, Carizma Clinton, said Tuesday. “I’m tired of everyone not giving me answers. I just want answers.”

Nothing came of the police visit last Thursday night to the apartment complex in the 2200 block of Linton Ridge Circle.

“They didn’t find any evidence of a shooting or anyone at the scene who had heard gunshots,” said Dani Moschella, spokeswoman for the Delray Beach Police Department.

Detectives now think it’s likely the anonymous caller heard the gunshots that resulted in Pearson’s death, she said.

Pearson had been in Palm Beach County Jail the just one week before on charges of false imprisonment and domestic violence by strangulation, court records show.

Delray Beach police arrested Pearson on Oct. 16. He bonded out on Oct. 18.

Clinton had flagged down a community service officer in the street. The 25-year-old woman said her live-in boyfriend had choked her and locked her in their apartment, police said.

According to a police report, at least one child, a 2-year-old girl, was present during the violence.

“Honestly, I wasn’t going to press charges,” Clinton told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “I was going to try to make everything work out for our kids and then I got the devastating news.”

Pearson is the father of Clinton’s 2-month-old son and 2-year-old daughter, she said.

“Tyler, he was a really great father,” Clinton said. “I love him so much; he’s the love of my life.”

Pearson told police he was an unemployed car salesman, his arrest report said.

Pearson got out of state prison on Jan. 5, 2016 after serving nearly four and a half years of a six-year sentence, Florida Department of Corrections records show.

He had been convicted of 10 counts of burglary and six counts of grand theft committed in 2010, according to DOC.