Man’s body found inside burning car at city park

A man’s body was found inside a burning sedan Tuesday at Bicentennial Park in North Lauderdale, the Broward Sheriff’s Office said.

Although several neighbors said they heard early morning gunshots, the sheriff’s office would not say what caused his death.

“It’s unclear who this person is, why he was here and the cause of the fire, but [detectives] do have an indication it is a homicide and that’s how they are approaching it,” Broward Sheriff ’s spokeswoman Joy Oglesby said.

The park, at 6100 Kimberly Blvd., west of State Road 7, is for young children and has a large lawn that leads to a canal. The car that caught fire was at the south side of the park parking lot where visitors enter the green space, and is next to the city’s operations center for its parks department.

After North Lauderdale Fire Rescue put out the blaze, “they found a man’s body inside,” Oglesby said.

Neighbors said they were wakened by gunfire. One resident complained about teens or young adults congregating in the park’s parking lot and other corners of the neighborhood.

“There are too many cars here late at night,” said Dallas Joseph, who said he sees them when he returns home from his job as a cook. He thinks he heard an explosion about the time investigators say the car fire took place.

His tenant, Anne Verne, said she heard gunfire early Tuesday.

“I was in the middle of sleep and heard at least two shots, I’m not sure on the time,” Verne said. “When I saw the police lights it was 5 [a.m.].”

She described seeing smoke and flames coming from the car, “and the firefighters going around it...I told my sister I heard the shots, and that it can’t be good.”

A block west of the park, Tiffany Bryant said she and her husband are “late-night birds,” and were sitting outside their home before dawn. After they turned in, the couple heard gun shots.

“I heard about two or three of them,” Bryant said. “We looked back outside. We didn’t see anything but we heard a car squealing off. Next thing you know we smell smoke.”

Later in the morning when she got up to take their children to school, Bryant said she saw detectives in the park.

“I told my husband, ‘Bae, someone was killed this morning.’ It’s an unfortunate situation for the family and the friends of the victim. Being shot and then burnt up is not a good thing, and my prayers go out to the family of the deceased.”

Oglesby would not confirm if the victim had been shot.

“The call came across as a vehicle on fire,” she said. “Of course the detectives at this point need any bit of information that they can get.”

The sheriff’s office asks anyone with home security video or information about the homicide to call Detective Kevin Forsberg at 954-321-4200 or Broward County Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477. That organization accepts anonymous tips and pays up to $3,000 for information that leads to an arrest.

LINDA TRISCHITTA/STAFF A body was found in this burnt car parked in a lot near the north entrance of Bicentennial Park in North Lauderdale on Tuesday. Police are investigating the death as a homicide.