2 of the 3 Broward men were shot. Now one dead, one arrested and one absconding

Nearly two months after an arrest warrant was issued in a January double shooting in Broward County that left a man dead, the suspect, Leronte Smith, was located and arrested.

But one of the men accused of shooting Smith is now listed as a fugitive by the Florida Department of Corrections.

As for Smith, 34, he is listed as an inmate at the Broward County Jail, held on no bond after being charged with first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder. Smith has yet to be charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm, despite his 2010 felony battery conviction that sent him to prison for five months.

Broward is holding Smith for Palm Beach County, where law enforcement also wanted Smith on burglary and petit larceny charges.

Read more: Double shooting kills one in Broward residential area

Online court records do not list an attorney for Smith after the Broward County Public Defender’s Office filed to resign. Office hints it Representing two male smiths On Jan. 9, 33-year-old Brandon Dessalines and 26-year-old DeWitt Butler, as well as a witness in other cases, are charged in the shootings. That legal commitment remained through Dessalines’ shooting death.

Arrest documents say Butler was shot in the leg and remained at Broward Health Medical Center until at least Jan. 13. But Sunday, the Florida Department of Corrections website lists Butler is under community control probation Until February 1, 2024, after Grand Theft Auto and As a fugitive/fugitive.

Monday, January 9, 2023

An arrest warrant says two ShotSpotters alerts from a home brought deputies to the 1400 block of Northwest 27th Avenue at 2:39 a.m. Jan. 9. Deputies found Dessalines dead and Butler with a gunshot wound to the leg. They also found five 9mm casings from Sig Sauer, Blazer and I-USA. Butler eventually told BSO detectives that he and Dessalines were sitting at a bus stop when a black Mercedes pulled up and the occupants started shooting.

The story continues

The arrest warrant also said surveillance video from a nearby home showed a black four-door Mercedes with a spoiler added. About a mile and a half away and seven hours after the shooting, Fort Lauderdale police investigating a burglary found two Sig Sauer 9mm casings on the passenger side of a black Mercedes with an after-market spoiler.

Surveillance video showed the Mercedes parked there in the 2300 block of Northwest 16th Court about three minutes after the shooting. While investigators were there, a 27-year-old man came up and said he had come to pick up the Mercedes for his brother, the registered owner, who had rented it to someone else. The 27-year-old said he received a phone call to meet someone in the 1600 block of Northwest 24th Avenue to get car keys.

When detectives searched the vehicle, they found Leronte J., according to the arrest warrant. Get a Navy Federal Credit Union bank statement for Smith Butler later identified Smith in a photo lineup as the man who shot and killed Dessalines, the warrant said.