Man arrested on attempted-murder charge
Suspect was free on bond in drug case at time of shooting.
BOYNTON BEACH — A 20-year-old Boynton Beach man faces an attempted-murder charge following a shooting last month that left bullet holes in cars and a home on Northwest 11th Avenue.
Marquis Bonner Jr. was arrested Tuesday, and on Wednesday, Judge Dina Keever-Agrama ordered that he be held in the Palm Beach County Jail without bail. He was out of the county jail on an $8,000 bond for drug charges when he was picked up last week. According to court records, that case remains open.
A man told authorities he was smoking a cigarette shortly after 9 p.m. Jan. 16 outside his home east of Barton Memorial Park. He noticed three men near a silver Hyundai Sonata, then watched one sneak around the home and fire about six shots at him. The man pulled out his gun, which authorities confirmed he can legally carry, and fired back until he heard the other man stop shooting.
In all, about 20 bullets were fired, authorities said. No one was injured, but the bullets left holes in nearby cars and the man’s house. That was at least the fourth shooting call that Boynton Beach police had responded to that night.
After the gunfire, the man watched the gunman run away from the home. The man rushed inside to his wife and three children and called authorities.
He told police he always keeps a gun on him because he “constantly hears gunshots in the neighborhood,” where he had lived since November. After that shooting, the man and his family had had enough. They moved out of the neighborhood that night, according to city police.
The man was back in the area Monday, he said, and saw a familiar face — the gunman’s. The man picked Bonner out of a photo lineup, adding that he was “100 percent certain” Bonner had fired at him.
Bonner cannot legally possess a gun because he is a convicted felon. In December, he pleaded guilty to drug- and driving-related offenses stemming from an investigation into drug dealers sparked by an August overdose in the city. As part of the plea, Bonner’s driver’s license is suspended until the end of the year.