Suspect arrested in parking lot slaying

Fort Lauderdale police looking for second man involved in shooting

An argument in a Fort Lauderdale beach parking lot last week quickly turned deadly after a man took a gun from his car and shot another man in the leg. A second suspect then came and shot the victim in the head, killing him, police said.

Fort Lauderdale Police arrested the second suspect, Gerald Gotcher, a 43-year-old Fort Lauderdale resident, on Friday. Gotcher faces charges of murder for allegedly shooting the victim, 31-year-old Jamar Ahmed Mousakheel, in the head, police said in a news release on Monday.

The hunt is still on for the other suspect, who shot Mousakheel in the leg only moments before Gotcher did, police said in the release. Mousakheel was shot dead on Tuesday about 11:15 p.m. at 231 Almond Ave., after visiting a nearby business, police said.

Surveillance video from Blondies Sports Bar and from a nearby home shows Mousakheel approach the first suspect in the parking lot, where they started arguing.

The man got the gun from his car and shot Mousakheel in the leg before taking off in a light-colored sedan.

Mousakheel remained in the parking lot, and surveillance video showed him sitting down and rocking back and forth, police said. That’s when Gotcher allegedly approached him and shot him once in the head before taking off on foot, police said.

Mousakheel was taken to Broward Health Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.

Neighbors in nearby condominiums reported hearing two loud booms. Quickly, swarms of police responded to a parking lot behind Blondies and Half Baked Tattoo parlor, where Gotcher works, according to his arrest report. The incident happened a block west of the iconic Elbo Room.

Detectives canvassed the area for witnesses, and spoke to Gotcher at Half Baked Tattoo, the report said. Gotcher denied that he ever went outside, the report said.

Later, when detectives reviewed Blondies’ surveillance footage, they realized the clothes the shooting suspect was wearing in the video matched what Gotcher wore when they spoke with him: A green tshirt with the words “Keep Calm” scrawled across the front in white lettering, the report said.

Detectives received the surveillance footage from Blondies on Thursday. Shahrouz Rahimi, Half Baked Tattoo’s owner, provided video from his shop that shows Gotcher outside of the store during the first shooting, and later shows him leave the store and return right after the second shooting, the report said.

Rahimi identified Gotcher in the video, and confirmed the man in the footage from Blondies “looked like Gerry,” the report said.

There is no indication that the shooting was related to protests rocking the nation over the police asphyxiation of a black man in Minneapolis.

Records show that Mousakheel, the dead man, has a criminal record. He was charged in a carjacking in Boynton Beach in 2013 and got out of prison in 2016.

Mousakheel’s mother declined to comment Monday evening.

One of Mousakheel’s younger sisters said she’s thankful that one of the men is in custody, but she feels uneasy that the other is not. She asked the South Florida Sun Sentinel not to use her name.

“In my opinion, what happened to Jamar is pure evil,” she said Monday. “It was horrible and unjust, because my brother wasn’t aggressive and didn’t have a weapon. He was harmless.”

Mousakheel was her mother’s firstborn, and now the family is mourning his death while seeing his mugshot shown on the news, she said.

“We only want justice for Jamar,” she said. “Jamar had a past, but it didn’t define him. He’s more than a criminal. He was a young man with a child.”

“He was definitely turning his life around...and trying to do better,” said Tia Smith, of Lauderhill, who helped raise him. “Trying to get over those hurdles that he had. He did have a criminal past but that didn’t define him.”

Mousakheel was staying in a Seville Street apartment on Fort Lauderdale Beach, with a friend, relatives said. He has a 3-year-old son.

Detectives are seeking the public’s help in identifying the first suspect. Anyone with information regarding this incident is encouraged to contact Detective J. Jaggers at 954-828-5970 or Detective Sergeant S. Novak at 954-828-5556.

Mousakheel