Man arrested in shooting death of his Pompano Beach roommate, Broward sheriff says
POMPANO BEACH — A man has been arrested in connection with the fatal shooting of his roommate in their Pompano Beach apartment, the Broward County Sheriff's Office said Friday.
Jeramie James Smith, 34, has been charged with second-degree murder in the slaying of Paul Rivera, 46, on Jan. 10. It was not clear if bond has been set in the case.
The shooting prompted a lockdown at Pompano Beach High School as deputies investigated the incident.
Investigators did not immediately reveal a motive for the shooting.
The police activity spurred anxiety at the school campus.
"If someone got shot it's a little scary knowing that they could've hopped on the campus and something could've happened," said student Elise Rothenburg.
The building was put on lockdown after reports of the shooting.
"Like most of our drills, they say that we're in a lockdown and usually they follow up with "this is a drill" but they didn't follow up, so we knew it wasn't a drill," said Rothenburg.
"Obviously, I was concerned about the students you know because I didn't know what it was, if there was like, somebody wondering the neighborhood or something," said John Foster, who does security for Broward County Public Schools.
The lockdown was put in place out of an abundance of caution following a deadly shooting that happened right behind the school on the 1300 block of NE 4th Street, authorities said.
Ian Sneed was walking his dog when he saw cop cars pull up to the scene.
"I heard sirens, and when I came back across the street, I saw about 4-5 units that pulled up right along the street," said Sneed.
According to the Broward County Sheriff's Office, they received a call about a shooting in the area around 8 a.m. When they arrived, one man dead on the scene.
One neighbor named Donna, who didn't want to share her last name, says a woman showed up in tears.
"The mom came — I guess The mom of one of the persons in whatever apartment it is, I have no idea. She was just pacing back and forth so I just gave her some coffee and a tissue," said Donna.
Donna said the woman came inside and she tried to calm her down.
"She just said it's my son. He called me. Then he called 911 and that's all she knew at that point. She was waiting for detectives to get here,"
Police detained a man who was on the scene for questioning and the shooting remains under investigation.
It's unclear what led to the shooting and the names of the victim and the person who was detained has not been released.
