Police: Man slain in I-95 gunfire was shot in the head, groin
BOYNTON BEACH — A 31-yearold Boynton Beach man killed last week on Gateway Boulevard near Interstate 95 appears to have taken a fatal gunshot wound to the back of his head, according to incident reports from Boynton Beach police.
Antoine Pernell Smith was shot at least twice — once each in the head and groin — at about 11:20 a.m. Feb. 8, then crashed his Chevrolet SUV into a retaining wall on Gateway Boulevard, just before the southbound entrance ramp to I-95.
The first-arriving Boynton police officer found Smith slumped to the left inside the vehicle, bleeding heavily and unconscious. The officer’s report notes that Smith was still alive and “attempting to breathe.”
As Smith was being pulled out of the SUV by Boynton Beach Fire Rescue, the officer noticed a bullet hole in the driver’s-side door.
“At that time it was apparent to me that Smith had sustained at least one gunshot wound,” the officer wrote in her report.
The incident reports say witn e s s e s s aw a p a s s e n ge r i n a dark-colored SUV — possibly a Kia Soul — shooting at Smith around the southbound exit on I-95 to Gateway Boulevard. A stolen Kia Soul was recovered later that day by the Palm Beach County Sheriff ’s Office.
Smith was rushed to Delray Medical Center, where he died.
Smith’s SUV had gunshot holes in the front windshield, drive r ’s - s i de door a nd re a r dr iver’s-side door, police said.
The people in the dark- colored SUV who shot Smith are believed to also have shot at a BMW a short time later on I-95 northbound just north of Lantana Road.
The Palm Beach County Sher- iff ’s Office has released a sketch of a person of interest in the shooting.
Anyone with information on either incident is asked to contact Crime Stoppers of Palm Beach County at (800) 458-8477 (8477) or Sheriff ’s Detective J. Greco at 561-688-4054 or GrecoJ@PBSO. org. Crime Stoppers offers up to a $1,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and tipsters can remain anonymous.