Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
FHP trooper involved in deadly shooting off I-95 in Delray Beach
DELRAY BEACH – A traffic stop that turned into a pursuit Tuesday evening ended with a man shot dead by a Florida Highway Patrol trooper.
A rifle and handgun were recovered at the scene, and the vehicle the man was driving was stolen, the FHP said Wednesday.
The incident began shortly before 7 p.m. when a trooper attempted to make a traffic stop on I-95, but the driver sped away. After a short distance, the driver crashed into another vehicle, according to the highway patrol.
The driver exited his vehicle and shot at the responding troopers, who returned fire, the FHP said. The driver was shot dead.
He was identified
Wednesday by FHP as Steve Gilbert, 33, of Pompano Beach.
Dan Hoggins, 69, said he saw the suspect and witnessed the aftermath of the shooting.
Hoggins said he walked out onto his front porch as he heard sirens approaching, and saw a man running barefoot through his driveway on Southwest 11th Avenue.
“He looked me dead in the eye and I looked him dead in the eye, and I thought he was going to come in the house but he ran around,” Hoggins said.
Hoggins turned and went back inside his home, and that’s when he heard gunfire.
“I heard a shot earlier and I looked back and saw the police with his gun,” he said. “I looked through the window and pow, pow.
“He was laying right by the window. They tried to revive him but it didn’t do no good.”
Hoggins said the man looked to be in his late 20s and was wearing a black tank top and blue shorts.
Hoggins’ sister, Ella Akins, lives across the street and saw the encounter from her screened-in porch.
“All of a sudden I hear somebody running and saw a state trooper and I heard a shot,” she said. “I didn’t see who he was after.”
She came around to the front of her house, and saw a trooper chasing the suspect through her brother’s yard.
“By the time they got about midway around the side of the house, I heard three more shots,” she said.
Windell Smith, 66, who lives one block from the intersection, said he heard the gunfire Tuesday night.
“I was sitting on my porch and I heard four gunshots,” Smith said. “Bam, bam, bam, and there was a pause, and then a fourth one.”
Police shut down all travel along Atlantic Avenue, from east of I-95 to 10th Avenue, Tuesday night.
Law enforcement officers were back in the neighborhood Wednesday, combing the area around the 1100 block of West Atlantic Avenue.
The trooper has been placed on non-disciplinary administrative leave, the FHP said. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the incident as is standard procedure in police-involved shootings.