Man charged Monday's shooting in Miramar
FORT LAUDERDALE - An arrest has been made in a Miramar shooting on Monday that sent a man to the hospital.
According to police, the shooting happened just before 10 a.m. in the Avalon apartment community in the 4300 block of SW 113th Avenue.
According to police, 29-year-old John Paul got a gun from his garage, walked across the parking lot and out of the community, and shot at two people who were sitting in a car at the entrance gate.
Paul is on felony probation for a battery charge in Miami-Dade.
When police arrived, they found a man who a gunshot wound to his abdomen. He was taken to Memorial Regional Hospital where he underwent surgery.
As they were preparing to search the community for the gunman, police said an anonymous witness came forward and told them that Paul was hiding behind Building 2. When officers went there, Paul was detained without incident and told them he placed the gun on the second floor of the stairwell.
The second person who had been in the car told police that he and the man were talking when a woman came up and asked if they were staying in the development. That's when he saw a man with a gun walking towards them. He said ducked just before hearing gunshots and then jumped out of the passenger window and hid behind a building until the shooting stopped.
During questioning, Paul told the officers he felt it was suspicious when he saw the car because the apartment complex is upscale and the vehicle was run down, according to the incident report.
Paul said he asked a woman he knows to go up to the car and ask what they were doing there. According to police, he then walked up behind the woman and started shooting at the car's occupants.
As to why"
",,,Basically I felt like they was trying to get me, I just got to them before they got to me," Paul told the officers, according to the report.
Paul told the officers that he had never seen the car or those in it before, but he just felt like they were there to kill him, according to police.
When asked why he felt that way, he stated, "I just know," adding that he "felt death" all morning.
"Look here, I shot at them, I ain't gonna lie to you, straight up, I told you I felt like I was gonna die so I shot at them (expletive). Today I'd rather be in jail, I felt like I was gonna die," Paul told the officers, according to the report.
He was then taken into custody and charged with attempted first degree murder.