Players at a Thursday night card game in a Pompano Beach park ran for their lives when two armed robbers showed up and demanded everyone’s money, police said.
When the card players, including 18-year-old Brian Wallace Jr., made a run for it the robbers, started shooting, according to the Broward Sheriff’s Office.
It wasn’t until Wallace and a relative made it to the shelter of their nearby car that Wallace realized he had been shot, said Gina Carter, a spokeswoman for the Sheriff’s Office.
Wallace, known as BJ, died at the hospital six hours later, she said.
Detectives are urging witnesses to come forward.
“Our family is torn to pieces beyond repair,” said Wallace’s grandfather, Timothy E. Kitchens, of Delray Beach.
Wallace graduated from Blanche Ely High School last year, was about six months into a custodial job with the Broward County School District and was looking forward to going to school to learn to become an electrician, Kitchens said.
“We raised BJ from a baby,” Kitchens said of himself and his wife Valerie. “He never gave an ounce, I mean an ounce, of trouble to anyone. It’s just tragic for someone to just take him like that.”
The shooting happened shortly after 9:30 p.m. at Apollo Park, 1580 NW Third Ave., just west of the Pompano Beach Airpark, Carter said.
Wallace was taken to Broward Health North in Deerfield Beach where he died from his injuries at about 3:50 a.m. Friday, Carter said.
“I’m not sure what took place there,” Kitchens said of the scene at the park. “We just hope that they can put the guns down.”
Kitchens, owner of Timothy E. Kitchens Funeral Home in Riviera Beach, said his grandson, a well-mannered and quiet young man, loved the Lord, video games, football, basketball and fishing trips on grandpa’s boat.
A vigil will be held at Apollo Park at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Kitchens said.
A viewing is scheduled for Friday, 6 to 9 p.m. at Jesus Supernatural Church, 700 NW 21st Ave., Pompano Beach. A funeral will be held Saturday at noon at the same location.
Investigators urge anyone with information about the shooting to contact homicide Detective Jim Hayes at 954-321-4231. Anonymous tips can be made to Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477 or online at www.browardcrimestoppers.org
Anonymous tips that lead to an arrest are eligible for a reward of up to $3,000.
tealanez@sun-sentinel.com, 954-356-4542 or Twitter @talanez