By Kevin Deutsch
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
BOCA RATON, Fla. — The Club Boca patrons turned the Palmetto Park southbound entrance ramp into an open-air nightclub, authorities said, parking their cars, blasting music, and blocking traffic so that other motorists had to drive around them to get past.
When shots rang out, there was pandemonium among the revelers. People scattered. Cars sped off, tearing through the grass on the side of the road, investigators said. Investigators are searching for a male shooter who fled the early morning party scene after a 19-year-old was hit twice in the torso.
Boca Raton Police responded, then called the Florida Highway Patrol, who has jurisdiction on the highway. Because the shooting was a violent crime, FHP turned it over to the Palm Beach County Violent Crimes Task Force, whose detectives arrived to find only three clubgoer’s cars still on the scene, including the one in which the victims had been riding.
Les Jean Baptiste, 19, was shot twice in the torso about 4 a.m. and was taken to Delray Medical Center where he is expected to survive, according to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office. A passenger in his parked car, 21-year-old Jarvis Scott, also had an injury to his leg, and was treated at Delray Medical and released.
So far, witnesses are not giving the task force the information they want, investigators said.
Lt. Mike Wallace, who leads the Violent Crimes Task Force, said information is being shared with authorities in Broward County, so that they can be on alert for any other gunshot victims who may have sought treatment at area hospitals. The task force also wants Broward authorities to be on alert for possible retaliation shootings, in case the shootout on the interstate turns out to have been gang-related, Wallace said. Baptiste and Scott both live in Pompano Beach.
Boca Raton police and Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office officials say up to 100 cars spread out at the Palmetto Park Road ramp after Club Boca closed early Thursday morning. They found 28 shell casings from four different guns, said sheriff’s spokeswoman Teri Barbera.
“It was like a parking lot,” Barbera said of the scene, which kept the interstate ramp closed for some time during the investigation.
Anyone who has information on the shooting is being urged to contact the task force at 688-4000 because investigators are concerned someone else was hurt.
Copyright 2007 The Palm Beach Post