DeSantis touts environmental agenda, hits Biden on school protests
Pays WPB Earth Day visit to Cox Science Center
RIVIERA BEACH – A confrontation between a Riviera Beach police officer and a man in a parking lot at Suncoast High School on Monday morning led to shots fired that sent the man to a hospital with gunshot wounds and placed the campus on lockdown, according to the
Gov. Ron DeSantis touted his dedication to Everglades restoration and water quality improvement Monday in West Palm Beach, noting a tally of $6.5 billion dedicated to environmental projects since he took office.
DeSantis, who spoke at the Cox Science
School District of Palm Beach County.
Authorities named neither the wounded man nor the Riviera Beach police officer who shot him. The man remain hospitalized in stable condition Monday afternoon, the district and Riviera Beach police said. He is expected to face criminal charges.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the shooting at the request of Riviera Beach police. The state agency often takes over investigations in cases where a law enforcement officer shoots someone.
FDLE declined to release further details Monday, citing the open investigation.
Center and Aquarium on Earth Day, said the money has paid for multiple endeavors, including raising the Tamiami Trail, that have helped double the amount of water flowing south into Everglades National Park and Florida Bay.
This upcoming fiscal year beginning July 1, the state budget provides $1.5 billion for environmental improvements, including $614 million to projects outlined in the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, or CERP. The plan, au
According to school district statement released Monday afternoon, the situation began prior to the start of school when the man walked onto a campus parking lot when he was not authorized to do so.
When approached by a police officer on campus about why he was there, the man became combative and made physical contact with the officer.
“The officer then discharged their weapon, and the individual was shot twice,” the school district reported. Medics took both the officer and the wounded man to a hospital for care.
A West Palm Beach police officer who once played football at Florida Atlantic University died last week in a single-vehicle crash, the department said.
Joshua Tyree Ballesteros, 30, was a six-year veteran of the city force. He died early April 14 after his car went into a canal along North Congress Avenue.
Authorities found his vehicle shortly before 5:30 a.m. Sunday after a caller to 911 reported seeing a vehicle go into a canal south of Lombard Street, near 45th Street. Another caller reported seeing a car upside down in the water and told a dispatcher that no one had gotten out.
Officers removed Ballesteros from a 2017 Ford Fusion and brought him to shore. Ballesteros died that day at St. Mary’s Medical Center, police said. He was driving his personal vehicle and was not on duty at the time of the crash.
As of Friday, the crash remained under investigation. The department said traffic homicide investigators have determined Ballesteros was traveling north on Congress when, for reasons unknown, the Fusion ran off the road and struck a guardrail before hitting a tree, rolling over and landing in the canal upside down.
Ballesteros was a defensive lineman for FAU’s football team from 2012 to 2015 and earned a bachelor’s degree in public safety administration, the university’s athletic department said this week. It recruited him out of Miami Central High School.
“Josh was everything you could ask for as an alumnus of this university and our football program,” the FAU athletic department and football program said in a joint statement.
“He was a model student-athlete and teammate, an incredible family man and an upstanding member of the West Palm Beach community as a law enforcement officer. Our hearts go out to the entire Ballesteros family. They are in our thoughts at this difficult time.”