‘Erratic’ driver shot and killed on school campus

Students at the Dreyfoos School of the Arts in downtown West Palm Beach were wrapping up their lunches on Friday afternoon when chaos erupted. Several thought the shouts of “Code Red” were a prank.

When they saw teachers running, they knew something was wrong.

A man drove a van through a locked chain-link gate at the school and jumped out, ran around the campus and eventually made it into a building with students and teachers inside.

Some students fled to a nearby Tri-Rail station. Some went into a business at the corner of Fern Street and South Tamarind Avenue. Others hid out in the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts for hours.

A West Palm Beach Police officer shot and killed the man, who police said was behaving erratically, inside the auditorium of Building 7 after a fight between police and the driver.

The driver was pronounced dead at the scene. No students or faculty were injured, police said. The officer is on administrative duty, as is standard procedure.

‘I thought it was fake’

The man was driving east in the westbound lanes of Banyan Boulevard before he crashed through the school’s locked gates on Tamarind Avenue, police said. The driver hit a palm tree and just missed a maintenance worker in a golf cart.

The suspect acted violently toward the school staff and West Palm Beach Police, who were on scene within a minute, spokesman Mike Jachles said. No information about the suspect or the officer who shot him was released Friday afternoon. The officer was put on administrative duty, as is standard procedure.

“An intruder on a school campus crashing through gates, running around an active school campus and acting erratically, will be dealt with appropriately,” Jachles said.

Building 7 includes an auditorium in the front and classrooms in the back. No students were in the auditorium, but they were in other parts of the building, Jachles said.

“What I know is the suspect was inside the auditorium … students who were in the building did not witness this,” Jachles said. “It was stopped in the auditorium.”

Audrey Dzwill, 15, and Evin Molina, 16, said shortly before noon they were leaving lunch in Building 7 when students suddenly started sprinting into the building. People were yelling out “Code Red,” which means there’s an intruder, the students said.

Molina and Dzwill, along with other students, fled the building and waited at the nearby Tri-Rail station for about 15 minutes, unsure of what was happening on campus. A teacher came over and moved them to a nearby business building where they waited for about an hour.

Molina and Dzwill were some of

Although the commission unanimously agreed Wednesday night to toss the policy that allows them to spend the money, not everyone agreed it was really needed.

“I don’t give much credence to the OIG [Office of Inspector General] report,” said Vice Mayor Mike Gelin. “This report is really about nothing. It’s about trying to slander the name of the city of Tamarac. I’m pretty disappointed in the OIG.”

He referenced the report’s finding that nobody on the commission has abused the travel policy, but didn’t mention that the City Commission didn’t spend any of the money amid the attention and public outcry last year; Gelin acknowledged he didn’t use his share because of the pandemic.

Others said it was time to immediately end the policy and be done: “When the OIG makes a suggestion, I don’t think there should be a lot of conversation,” said Commissioner Debra Placko.

The lavish travel budget was thrust into the spotlight when the

South Florida Sun Sentinel exposed the spending plans last year. A string of news articles about even more perks followed, leading commissioners to stop their spending of the city coffers.

The county’s Inspector General responded with an investigation, determining last month that the city needed a plan because, moving forward, there would be no documentation to show how the politicians would use their share of the money, and if they use it for its intended purpose.

However, getting rid of the local travel budget does not affect the shared annual $55,000 out-of-town travel expense reimbursement fund.

Mayor Michelle Gomez, who asked the travel item be stricken from the books, said she wanted it repealed a long time ago, but didn’t have faith in her colleagues to take action without the inspector general’s report.

She said she had “a lack of confidence in this commission.”

Gomez said she was also putting her colleagues on notice that June 16, when budget conversations start, she’d be requesting the city rid itself of their $25,000 personal initiative, too.

The $25,000 spending account is another self-appointed commission perk. It’s a discretionary fund for each commissioner; at least one of them has previously dipped into it for office décor.

Bolton said he’d too ask for a benefit to be taken away. He said he’d like to address commission salaries and the $700 monthly car stipend. No receipts or documentation is required for payment.