A Deerfield Beach man is facing first-degree murder charges after deputies say he shot and killed another man laying on the ground in an “assassination act” and injured two others after an altercation that began inside a North Lauderdale sports bar.
Brandon Neville Shane Roberts, 32, was arrested on March 29, five days after the shooting, according to a Wednesday media release from the Broward Sheriff’s Office. He faces one count of first-degree murder with a firearm and one count of attempted murder with a firearm.
The altercation stemmed from a spilled drink that later turned into a physical fight outside and ended with Roberts shooting three men outside of Player’s Sports Bar and Grill in the early morning hours, according to a probable cause affidavit and media release. Deputies say Roberts shot DeAndre Major multiple times while he lay on the ground, unable to get away, according to witnesses and surveillance footage cited in the affidavit.
Major, of Fort Lauderdale, and the two other victims, Brandon Pinkney, 36, of Coral Springs, and Clarence Hall, 30, of Miami, all arrived separately at the hospital. Major later died, but Pinkney and Hall were expected to recover. One had multiple gunshot wounds, and the other had one wound to his ankle.
Surveillance footage revealed that one of Major’s friends had bumped into Roberts about 3:30 a.m. inside the bar, spilling his drink, according to the affidavit. The two looked at the drink, then back at each other, before beginning to argue.
Roberts then went to his car, the footage shows, where he appeared to retrieve something before returning to where Major and his friends were standing, the affidavit states.
They “exchanged words” before Major threw a punch at Roberts, who ducked, according to the affidavit. Major and his friends then seemed to be yelling at him, following him to the front of the bar, where they began to fight.
Major and his friends began punching Roberts, who turned around with a gun and began shooting. As Major was running away, Roberts allegedly shot him and he collapsed on the ground, according to the affidavit.
A bystander told police that he had taken cover and saw that Major and a victim described as “Victim #2” were both shot. The bystander watched as Roberts walked up to Major as he lay on the ground and “fired several more rounds into him,” the affidavit states, describing it as an “assassination act.”
Surveillance footage showed Roberts standing over Major and shooting him multiple times, the affidavit states. At this point, one of the other shooting victims did a barrel roll under a parked Cadillac Escalade to try to escape Roberts, according to the affidavit. Roberts walked around the body of one of the victims before shooting at the victim under the car, who managed to crawl around it for cover.
“Victim #2” told detectives that he had been at Player’s when he saw the beginnings of a fight between four people he didn’t know in front of the bar, according to the affidavit. When he tried to intervene, he said someone in the crowd shot him in the shoulder and leg but said he didn’t know who it was.
He said that he fell to the ground in pain, and the bystander who had witnessed Roberts shooting Major drove him to Florida Medical Center.
After shooting Major, Roberts walked away through the parking lot, giving the bystander time to help both victims into separate cars, the affidavit states. Before he left in the Mercedes with the second victim, the bystander said he heard more shots fired from a parking lot north of them.
According to the affidavit, a third person whose name is redacted grabbed an abandoned firearm and began to chase Roberts as the two exchanged gunfire, according to the affidavit. At some point, six gunshots are heard on the surveillance footage and the victim appears to collapse as if shot.
The friend who had bumped into Roberts’ drink and another man helped the victim to his feet and into a car before driving away.
BSO detectives later found 14 bullet casings in the parking lot.
Detectives determined that the car the suspect arrived in was located at the Extended Stay America motel in Deerfield Beach. They arrived there and spoke with the hotel manager about Roberts. He was arrested the same day by Broward Sheriff’s Deerfield Beach deputies and booked into Broward Main Jail without bond.