Gunman kills self after random shooting at Broward 7-Eleven that left 11YO boy dead, second man hurt
FORT LAUDERDALE - A gunman fatally shot an 11-year-old boy and wounded another man before turning the gun on himself inside a Broward County 7-Eleven store in an apparent random attack, sheriff's officials said Friday.
Broward County Sheriff's deputies said Darren Rosenthal, 29, shot a man sitting inside a van parked outside the Dania Beach convenience store at about 11 p.m. Thursday.
He then went inside the store and killed Syed Naabigh Ali who had gone to the store to buy ice cream, a bystander said. Rosenthal then killed himself.
"It just breaks my heart to know I was there with him when it happened and I couldn't do anything," Syed Talaal Ali, Naabigh's brother said.
Talaal, 20, spoke after his brother's funeral Friday evening.
"I hope in that moment he wasn't mad at me," Talaal Ali said. "(Naabigh) was looking at me looking for a response to save him. When I saw him he was already on the ground."
Information about the man who was shot and wounded was not immediately released.
According to the Broward Sheriff's Office, the agency received a call about a shooting at the store, located in the 800 block of Stirling Road, just after 11 p.m. Thursday.
Maximo Limas, who works at a restaurant inside the convenience store, said he saw it all happen. He said a man shot a man sitting his car in the parking lot before going into the store.
"He just walked in and started shooting. He opened the door and started shooting. The first one he shot was chilling in his car minding his business (and) 'Pow,' shot him in the neck," Limas said.
Limas said the man went inside the store.
"He killed a . . . boy and he just killed himself," Limas said. "He shot a customer (and) the kid just wanted to buy ice cream. That's all he was doing."
The sheriff's office said the boy died on the scene.
"I lost my 11-year-old brother right in front of me (Thursday night)," Talaal Ali said. "What's next?"
While he pleaded for no more senseless shootings, Ali's family hardly grieved alone. Strangers crowded the funeral prayer service in Hialeah Gardens.
Investigators are now trying to determine what led to the shooting.
Miami-Dade County court records show Rosenthal had several misdemeanor drug- and alcohol-related arrests about eight years ago.