Deputy in double shooting received good evaluations
Michael DeMarco shot, injured ex-girlfriend before killing himself.
BOYNTON BEACH — Michael DeMarco, documents show, was an exemplary sheriff ’s deputy who consistently earned high marks on his annual evaluations before he stepped out of his patrol car in uniform last week and shot his ex-girlfriend with his service weapon.
DeMarco, 55, then killed himself.
Yuly Solano, 41, survived the Oct. 12 shooting at the Inlet Harbor Club condominiums and remained »
Deputy’s brother has his own run-in with the law. in critical condition Tuesday at Delray Medical Center.
Nothing included in hundreds of pages of his personnel file with PBSO indicates DeMarco was capable of such violence.
In fact, DeMarco’s 22-year career with the sheriff ’s office was filled with praise from his superiors and letters of commendations, according to a review of
the deputy’s internal affairs records.
Except for two citizen complaints accusing DeMarco of unprofessional behavior, there is nothing close to a red flag in his history with the sheriff ’s office.
There is one caveat. The records provided to The Post do not include any evaluations of DeMarco’s perfor- mance beyond 2011, and it is unclear whether any written records exist for him beyond that year. Spokeswoman Teri Barbera said supervisors are given wide discretion in evaluating employees and no lon- ger must complete written reviews, which public organizations generally require annually.
PBSO officials, including Sheriff Ric Bradshaw, have not commented publicly about DeMarco since the shooting and have referred questions about the case to Boynton Beach police.
Police had said DeMarco and Solano broke up about three weeks ago. A neighbor who asked not to be named said the two had been a couple for about seven months. DeMarco and Solano both lived at the Inlet Harbor Club, on Federal Highway near Gateway Boulevard.
Gary Iscoe, Solano’s attorney, released a statement Monday night indicating the condominium associa- tion had received “multiple claims” from his client of “harassment” by DeMarco. His spokeswoman would not elaborate or provide any doc- uments Tuesday.
Iscoe’s statement also faulted the sheriff ’s office, saying “one or more individuals must have knowledge of what drove Mr. DeMarco to act the way he did. I ques- tion, were there actions there that were missed by the authorities?”
DeMarco’s work history provides few clues to his behavior last week.
The only blemishes during his PBSO tenure were a com- plaint from a suburban Delray Beach woman on Oct. 15, 2010, accusing DeMarco of rudeness, and a Feb. 5, 2016, complaint from a Lake Worth woman who said DeMarco and other deputies behaved in an “unprofessional man- ner.” DeMarco was cleared in both cases following a review by PBSO’s internal affairs unit.
In several of his annual evaluations, DeMarco is given high marks for his ability to deal with stressful situations.
“Copes effectively with pressures and tensions,” a superior wrote in 2001.
Calls to numbers listed for various relatives of DeMarco’s were not returned. DeMarco’s son and daughter did not respond to inquiries made to them on their Facebook pages. DeMarco’s former wife, who also is in law enforcement, did not respond to several requests for comment.
The same day DeMarco died, his brother, Frank J. Dunkow, was indicted on a charge that he helped to arrange jewelry sales to phony customers who used counterfeit credit cards at a now-closed Wellington store, court records show.