Sunday there were reports of a shooting in the Boca Fontana neighborhood, on the 7600 block of Majorca Place. This area is east of 441 on the south side of Kimberly (between Yamato and Glades), and not far from Boca Greens, Southwinds Golf Course and Olympic Heights High School.
Details from official sources are limited, and the people involved aren’t talking. The official story so far is that a resident was confronted by robbers and used a pistol in self defense, accidentally hitting a neighbor in the process. Oddly some of the reports identify the shooter as the “victim.”
We went to the scene Monday afternoon. As you can see in the picture on top, the media was there. This was well over 12 hours after the shooting, and nothing was going on.
One notable detail is a bullet hole in the neighbor’s house:
The following photo gives a better feel for the scene, with the shooter’s home to the right and the neighbor’s house across the street on the far left:
The two houses are mirror-image single floor models even with a similar color scheme. The bullet hole is in the vertical blue stripe between the garage and the front door, a few feet above the horizontal stripe and a few feet below the roof line.
Considering the height of the bullet hole, it would appear that the shooter fired at least two rounds, and not very accurately. It is possible that one of the rounds hit one of the robbers, though we haven’t heard anything further. Reports indicate the robbers got away.
We believe we have identified the shooter, a 72-year-old man who runs a business out of the home. We are not publishing his name yet because the Sheriff has expressed concerns that the robbers might target him. Similarly the shooting victim has not been named, though we understand he is in his 30s, married with a young child (note the toy near the front door). The property is owned by an investor group that acquired it in 2013 and owns at least one other house on the street. It was rented out in December of 2013, though one source tells us the shooting victim is a new tenant so the 2013 tenant may have been replaced.
The shooter’s house is owned by another 70+ woman who appears to have immigrated from Japan many years ago. Their relationship is unclear but they’ve both been in this house for a long time. We see no criminal history for the shooter, other than a few minor traffic tickets.
One story we’ve heard is that the shooter was coming home from some kind of event, perhaps a jewelry show. He does own a business that would fit with going to jewelry shows, though we can’t find any record of such an event that day. In this version of events, the “bad guys” followed him home to rob him, and he defended himself.
We can’t say this version of events is false of course. But we should also recognize that this area has some crime, as you can see in the crime map below (showing more than 10 burglaries, along with thefts, car break-ins and more reported from March 1 through April 6):
Also, the story does not seem consistent with how the Sheriff initially reported the story:
A later version we heard from the Sheriff was a little closer:
Victim was returning home from work when he was approached by unknown suspects. In an attempt to protect himself he armed himself with a handgun. During the course of the attempted robbery the victim discharged his firearm. Gunfire accidently struck a nearby neighbor.
The shooting is shown on the lower left of that image, marked in the assault category with the word shooting in the description. Note that the alleged robbery is not included in the crime map data. Zip code 33434 has a very low crime rate but that is mainly because it includes the gated and mostly senior communities of Century Village and Boca West.
A shooter in cases like this will often be prosecuted, at least for negligence in how he handled his firearm if not for something more serious. In firearms training one learns not only to be sure of your target but also to know what’s behind your target. Keep in mind that Palm Beach County voted heavily Democrat in the last four or five presidential elections, and our county prosecutor went after retired dentist Wayne Tover in a shooting incident on Glades Road where Tover actually hit his target. The fact that this shooter is being treated differently makes us wonder if he has connections to police or others in government.
The Boca Fontana shooter is also likely to face a civil suit from his neighbor, and that looks like a strong case for the shooting victim. It shouldn’t be too hard to find a lawyer to take that case.
Fortunately for all involved the shooting victim appears to be recovering well.
