Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Two dead, one injured after gunfire at club
Outside a nightclub near Fort Lauderdale on Wednesday, Broward Sheriff’s detectives paused as a man’s draped body was loaded into an SUV for a trip to the morgue.
Blood was spattered on a green Ford Escape SUV in the small parking lot of Club B.A.M. Blood also stained the north side of the lot and spilled toward Northwest First Street at Northwest 28th Terrace, where before dawn, a man was found dead.
Two other men were shot, and one later died at a hospital. The surviving man’s injuries were not life-threatening, Broward Sheriff ’s spokeswoman Joy Oglesby said.
“It’s kind of unclear exactly what happened,” Oglesby said. “The detectives are on scene trying to determine if it was related to the establishment or not.”
The violence happened just four blocks west of the Broward Sheriff’s West Broward Boulevard headquarters. Oglesby said the agency was called around 4:21 a.m. about shots fired in the neighborhood, bringing deputies and paramedics to the intersection.
“They found one adult male dead on scene,” Oglesby said. Broward Sheriff’s Fire Rescue did not take anyone to a hospital, a spokesman said.
The surviving men apparently got to a hospital on their own, and that is where one died.
Detectives identified the two dead men as Wendell Soliphar, 23, and Louis Simon, 30, who has several aliases, including Tony Josephs and “F 1.” The injured man has not been identified.
A block west of the club along Northwest 28th Way, Chad LaGasse stood in the rear parking lot of his family’s pool construction business that has been at the location for 59 years. The company’s sign, of a woman’s legs as she dives into water, is a landmark on West Broward Boulevard.
“Violence is very common in the neighborhood,” LaGasse said. “Recently a girl stabbed a guy in the stomach, right behind the convenience store [across the street]. Police are always here for something.”
Despite the criminal activity, he said the family likes the neighborhood and the people who live there, and have employed some residents.
“But it’s getting worse,” LaGasse said.
Eighteen months ago, the nightclub parking lot was a homicide scene. On Nov. 25, 2015, at about the same time as Wednesday’s violence, a deputy on patrol heard shots being fired and found Joshua Rogers, 27, of Pompano Beach, dead in the Club B.A.M. parking lot, the sheriff ’s office said.
Within four days, detectives arrested two men for suspicion of attempted murder for their roles in events that led to Rogers’ death, the agency said then.
On Wednesday morning after investigators left, the nightclub was open but no one came to the door. A realtor’s sign says the club is for sale; an owner and promoters could not be reached for comment.
Oglesby did not yet have descriptions of possible suspects.
“We desperately need the public’s help,” she said.
The agency asks anyone with information to call Broward County Crime Stoppers, at 954-493-8477. The organization accepts anonymous tips and pays up to $3,000 for information that leads to an arrest.