BREAKING: Shooting in West Boca – Boca Trails

Reader photo this morning of crime scene at 22793 Tradewind Road at Winding Creek Lane, just south of Judge Winikoff.

A man was shot in the torso early this morning. The incident took place in the Boca Trails subdivision, apparently at 22793 Tradewind Road just south of Judge Winikoff.

Update: PBSO tells us the victim is an adult black male.

Map showing location of 22793 Tradewind. Image and map data by Google.

We received notice of the incident almost immediately from a reader:

Someone was shot at that house (Tradewind Road). Don’t know all the details. 4-6 shots fired shortly after 2am. Ambulance removed 1 person about 10 minutes after the shots were fired.

The Sheriff’s office sent an e-mail this morning confirming it:

Time: 1:54 am
Detectives are investigating a shooting in the 22700 block of Tradewinds Road, unincorporated Boca Raton. A male was shot in the torso area by unknown shooter. The victim was transported to a local hospital for treatment. His condition is unknown.
No suspect information of known motive at this time. Detectives from the Violent Crimes Division are investigating further.
Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-458-TIPS.

The location is just north of the west end of the Watergate Estates trailer park. We have noticed a lot of arrests and reports of criminal activity in that section, but we see nothing indicating this incident is related to that.
The property where it happened was purchased in August of 2015 by a woman named Amanda Francois. This may be the same Amanda Francois whose father was murdered in 2014 in Miami, but we have not been able to confirm the connection.

Crime Victim Details Emerge

Brandon Ramineh from his Facebook page
Brandon Ramineh from his Facebook page

Yesterday on our Facebook page we posted about a pizza delivery guy robbed in the Timberwalk section of Loggers’ Run. The victim, Brandon Ramineh, responded to the post with details:

Pulled up to a delivery (which was obviously fake) and noticed a guy walking away from my car on the phone. I thought nothing of it. Got out of my car and as I turned to get the pizza out of my trunk I notice two African American guys walking up behind me in hoodies. Couldn’t do anything. Grabbed me by my neck, pushed me into the ground with a gun jammed into my back. The other guy reached into my pockets and stole my phone, wallet, keys and all my cash from work. They hopped in my car and floored it off (in manual mode in 1st gear like morons).

I heard they found the car at like 3AM a few miles away, but no one has contacted me yet.

To his credit, Mr. Ramineh seems to have recovered well from the incident and is in good spirits as best we can tell.
We contacted PBSO to see what they could tell us but they have not responded.
Update: PBSO did respond.

On Monday, June 6, 2016, at 11 pm, the victim was delivering pizza for Papa John’s to the 22000 block of Timberly Drive, Boca Raton. The victim parked his vehicle at the bottom of the driveway when he was approached by a black male from behind and placed into a choke hold and told not to move and lay face down. The black male suspect removed his keys from his pocket and three black males, all wearing hoodies, entered the vehicle and fled.

Jacob Cerney Walsh; photo from his Facebook page - Johnny Maserati
Jacob Cerney Walsh; photo from his Facebook page – Johnny Maserati

In a more serious incident, Jacob Cerney Walsh of Jupiter was shot and killed last night in an “apparent drug deal” in the San Marco community on Military Trail north of Yamato. Walsh was 25 years old.
Boca PD reports:

On Tuesday, June 7 at 12:17 a.m., Boca Raton Police officers responded to a report of a male who was shot at the San Marco Apartments, 5507 North Military Trail. Arriving officers located the shooting victim, Jacob Walsh, and provided medical attention until Boca Raton Fire Rescue personnel arrived and transported Walsh to Delray Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. Boca Raton detectives interviewed numerous witnesses, including people who live in the apartment complex.
There is evidence to indicate that Walsh was involved in a drug transaction when he was shot. The investigation is on-going and if anyone has information about this crime, please call Detective Lazarus Kimsal at (561) 620-6144 or Palm Beach County Crime Stoppers at (800) 458-TIPS.

Mr. Walsh had an extensive history in the Palm Beach court system, mostly traffic offenses but also including three felony arrests. The most recent felony case was still open from Palm Beach Gardens with counts for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and carrying a concealed firearm.

Image and map data by Google
Image and map data by Google

Shooting at Shadowood – Scene: Videos

This morning we were alerted to a shooting with one person dead in Shadowood Square, at the European Auto Service Center at 9787 Glades Road.

•••WEST BOCA•••
SHOOTING
9787 Glades Rd
PBCFR & PBSO onscene of a subject that was shot in the head at a business, unknown circumstances or suspect information, Advising confirmed “Signal-7” dead at scene, Crime Scene units enroute

It is on the east end of the plaza by the traffic light and close to Einstein Bagel.

As you can see in the video below (on the right side in the background), paramedics attempted to enter the premises but were turned away. The victim had already passed away.

It appears this was a suicide rather than a violent crime. Police secured only the area inside the building, even allowing a pedestrian to walk through the parking lot. An anonymous source also confirmed this was a suicide.
Police and others were talking to one young man, wearing a Batman t-shirt, who may have witnessed the shooting or found the body.

A gentleman (in the grey shirt and red shorts) approached us and identified himself as the owner. He did not offer any comment.

He then went to the witness and, along with first responders, offered comfort.

First responders from PBSO and Palm Beach County Fire Rescue remained on scene for a substantial amount of time.

Before we left the scene we shot one final video:

Shooting at Tricky Dick's?

Map data and image by Google
Map data and image by Google

About a week ago two readers said they heard there was a shooting at “Tricky Dick’s” in the Sandalfoot Square plaza. We didn’t have any verification initially so we didn’t report it.
We were able to get an answer from the Sheriff’s office:

On June 19, 2015, at 1:20 am, a patron inside of the bar was attacked by two unknown males. Several other patrons intervened and a fight carried over into the parking lot where the unknown males fled in a dark colored sedan.
About ten minutes later the two males returned and fired multiple gunshots at the business. A single projectile penetrated a business window and struck a female in the right ankle.
She was subsequently transported to West Boca Hospital by PBC FR (Palm Beach County Fire Rescue) to West Boca Hospital to be treated for her injury. A parked vehicle also suffered damage to its rear window. This case remains open.

A couple of things to note here. First, we’re not sure but we think the bar’s name may have changed from Tricky Dick’s to O’Connor’s Irish Pub. That’s what shows up on Google Maps for the address in question.
Second, the fact that the victim was transported to West Boca Medical Center rather than the Delray Trauma Center indicates the injury was not life threatening.
We will update this story if we get further information.

West Boca Shooting: Details and Photos

shooting-tv
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:
bullethole
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:
two-houses
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):
crime-map-southwinds
Also, the story does not seem consistent with how the Sheriff initially reported the story:
sheriff-tweet
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.
red-ad-wide
Fortunately for all involved the shooting victim appears to be recovering well.