Officer Down: Sergeant Christopher Reyka
By Brian Haas and Joel Marino Staff Writers
FORT LAUDERDALE — The circumstances, locations and types of guns fit the description, but detectives have not been able to link three Pompano Beach men suspected in a rash of pharmacy robberies to the August murder of a Broward sheriff’s deputy.
Sgt. Christopher Reyka, 51, of Wellington was murdered Aug. 10 outside a Pompano Beach Walgreens store in the midst of a rash of violent pharmacy robberies across South Florida. On that night, Reyka was checking on possible stolen vehicles in the store parking lot when he was shot. His death remains unsolved, but detectives in December arrested Timothy “Back Arms” Johnson, 34, Gerald “Dread” Joshua, 27, and Deitrick “Real Deal” Johnson, 21, in the six-month spree of pharmacy robberies.
According to a search warrant in Broward Circuit Court, detectives followed a tip from Timothy Johnson’s brother, Allen Johnson, that a gun used in the robberies may have been used to kill Reyka. Allen Johnson, who had been arrested on a warrant in an unrelated case, helped investigators find three out of four guns tossed into a canal in December. None of the guns matched the Reyka case, Sheriff Al Lamberti said Wednesday at a news conference. He said detectives are still looking for the fourth gun.
Detectives have arrested Consuela Jones, Timothy Johnson’s sister, on a charge of tampering and destroying evidence, believing that she helped get rid of the guns with another man who has yet to be arrested.
Lamberti said that the pharmacy robberies seem to fit the circumstances around Reyka’s murder, but the evidence has not turned up to make the connection. As of Wednesday, he called the similarities “kind of a coincidence.”
“It’s still promising. We’d still like to recover all the weapons,” Lamberti said.
Investigators continue to seek information on a white, four-door sedan with stolen license plate F16 8UJ seen around the time of Reyka’s murder. They are also looking for the driver of a Chrysler PT Cruiser seen on Powerline Road around the same time. One television segment on the murder has already run on the show America’s Most Wanted and Reyka’s wife, Kim, will appear in an upcoming episode.
Anyone with information on those vehicles or the case should call Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477.
Lamberti said the agency’s investigation into Reyka’s death has been full of “ups and downs” but he’s hopeful they’ll crack the case soon.
“We still need that one piece of the puzzle,” he said.
Copyright 2008 Sun-Sentinel