Police identified the 32-year-old man who was shot and killed in West Palm Beach on Friday night near Dreher Park, the fifth homicide in the county in nine days.
Mario Dorce was shot outside a home on the 900 block of West Lakewood Road just east of Parker Avenue and south of Southern Boulevard around 8 p.m.Friday, according police spokesman Sgt. Dave Lefont. Rescue crews took Dorce to a hospital, where he died from his injuries. Police did not indicate if the shooting was random or targeted.
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Dorce is the 86th homicide in Palm Beach County this year, according to a Palm Beach Post database. Two men were stabbed to death Thursday night in Greenacres, a man was shot to death in Riviera Beach Nov. 14, and a woman was shot to death in a Flakka drug deal gone bad in Boynton Beach on Nov. 13.
Though Dorce is the 19th homicide in 2015 for West Palm Beach, after an especially deadly summer, it is only the third in the southern end of the city. On Jan. 8, 20-year-old Benamar Vicente was found shot near Georgia Avenue and Hollywood Place, just north of Southern Boulevard. On Sept. 5, Deivis Costa stabbed Ariel Quintana Zamora, who died the following day from his injuries, just three streets south from Friday’s shooting.
Since 2009, 18 people have been killed south of Okeechobee Boulevard in West Palm Beach compared to the 97 north of it.
Shanon Materio, city commissioner for District 5 that covers from Okeechobee Boulevard east of Dixie Highway to just past Forest Hill Boulevard, said in an area of the city know for young families and quiet streets Friday’s fatal shooting was out of the norm.
“Any violence or crime in any neighborhood is cause for concern,” she said. “But here (in the south end), it’s incredible concerning.”
But, Materio added, residents shouldn’t be too alarmed because of the area’s quiet history.
When the commissioner, who has held the position for three years, first learned of the shooting Friday, she thought of her daughter, who was nearby that night. The first thing she said she did was call to make sure she was safe. Though her daughter was fine, she said another family lost a loved one.
Robert Norvell, the president of the South End Neighborhood Association, said while violence isn’t completely nonexistent in their area, he said those instances aren’t normally random acts of violence.
“We’re typically a very sleepy neighborhood, punctuated by rare violence,” he said. “When (a homicide) happens, everyone knows about it.”
He said the only random violence he remembers happening in the past few years was a woman shot while riding her bicycle along Olive Avenue.
“The neighborhood was freaking out about that one because we had a shooter on the loose for awhile,” Norvell said.
If anyone has information on this incident they are urged to contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-458-TIPS (8477) stay anonymous and be eligible for up to $1,000 REWARD! You can also text tips to tips@cspbc.com
Source: http://www.mypalmbeachpost.com/news/news/crime-law/west-palm-police-man-shot-friday-night-has-died/npSLm/