Deputy shoots woman, kills self

The shooting took place in a residence at the gated Inlet Harbor Club in Boynton Beach, police said. Neighbors say they heard three shots, a pause, then a final shot.

A Palm Beach Sheriff’s deputy died after shooting a woman in an attempted murder-suicide in Boynton Beach, police said Thursday.

The shooting was reported just after 8 a.m. inside the gated Inlet Harbor Club in the 2000 block of North Federal Highway, north of Gateway Boulevard, Boynton Beach police said.

Arriving officers discovered the shooting was an attempted murder-suicide in which a man shot a woman, then turned the gun on himself, said police spokeswoman Stephanie Slater.

Slater later confirmed that the man who shot and killed himself was a sheriff’s deputy. His name has not been released as investigators work to notify his family.

Paramedics took the woman to Delray Medical Center in critical condition. Police have not said what the relationship is between the deputy and the woman he shot.

Michael Danciu, 44, lives in The Harbors, a gated community just south of the Inlet Harbor Club. He was at his desk at home, working on his computer just after 8 a.m. when he heard several pops. He didn’t think they could be gunshots.

“My neighbor, a moment later, texted me. He said, ‘Did you hear that?’ I said, ‘It sounded like firecrackers,’ and he said, ‘Those weren’t firecrackers.’ ”

Danciu later talked with two neighbors who told him they heard a “pop, pop, pop,” a pause, then a final pop.

Moments later a barrage of sirens filled the air. He thought something might have happened at the Intracoastal Park just south of him, but he looked out a window to see ambulances, fire trucks and other emergency vehicles going north down Federal Highway.

As the day went on, Danciu heard rumors about a deputy shooting a woman and then killing himself. Boynton Beach Police later confirmed those rumors, leaving Danciu stunned.

“It’s sad and sort of surprising to hear that so close to home,” he said. “This is our walk every morning, we walk to Hypoluxo and back with a dog and a baby so that was a little disconcerting.”