It’s June 2019 shortly after 8 p.m. at the main bus terminal, a homeless gathering spot in downtown Fort Lauderdale at the time known by local police as a high-crime area for drug deals, shootings and violent assaults.
Alexander Paul, a Fort Lauderdale police officer working the evening shift, walks into the men’s restroom to wash his hands and immediately recognizes the guy at the urinal. It’s Melvin Wring III, a suspect with active warrants who cops say goes by the name “Monster” on the street.
The two men cross paths in an encounter that quickly escalates into a police shooting at the crowded bus station, a chain of events that ends up getting the officer fired — then rehired.
The scene, captured on the officer’s body camera, gets ugly fast.
Paul draws his gun, aims at Wring and orders him to get on the floor. Wring turns and sees the 9 mm Sig Sauer pistol pointed at him, then backs away, ignoring Paul’s rapid-fire commands.
“Hey bro, lay on the f—— floor, man!” Paul shouts. “Get on the f—— floor or I’m gonna pop you, bro. Get on the f—— floor.”
Wring, who is unarmed, pushes past Paul and makes a run for it. Paul chases him outside, aims his gun at Wring’s back from just a few feet away and fires. The bullet pierces Wring’s buttocks.
The shooting has been scrutinized by the department’s top brass, Internal Affairs investigators, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, prosecutors and an expert hired by the Broward State Attorney’s Office to review the shooting.
A use-of-force expert, enlisted by prosecutors to review the matter, concluded that Paul’s decision to shoot Wring was unreasonable and inconsistent with generally accepted practices. He noted the fact that several bystanders were nearby when Paul fired his gun. The expert asserted that “no reasonable officer” would shoot at a fleeing suspect with civilians in the line of fire.
But in the end, prosecutors decided against charging Paul, citing a lack of credible witnesses.
Paul’s actions that day got him fired on Oct. 12, 2023 — four years later. Paul filed a lawsuit two months after his dismissal and was hired back in May on the condition he drop his lawsuit.
Paul is now back at work, while Wring is in jail on a murder charge from an unrelated case.
In June 2023, Paul gave a sworn statement to investigators saying he was “fearful” for his life that day he came face to face with Wring.
“I did what I had to do because I wanted to go home,” Paul told investigators. “Also as well, the occupants of the bus terminal were also in danger from Monster’s actions. Due to his non-compliance in the bathroom, his history, my knowledge of him beforehand, and the fact that he made furtive movements towards his waistband, that’s why I discharged my firearm.”
Paul declined to comment when contacted by the South Florida Sun Sentinel. The police union that fought for the 32-year-old officer to get his job back did not return calls seeking comment.
Crossing paths
Wring, now 35, has a rap sheet that includes charges of drug possession, robbery and domestic violence, police say.
Paul, hired in 2015, believed Wring posed a safety threat based on Wring’s reputation and “the fact he was known to carry a firearm,” Paul’s Internal Affairs file says. “He learned Mr. Wring had two outstanding warrants for violation of probation and grand theft from a query of the (Broward Sheriff’s Office) warrants page.”
Police confirmed Wring had outstanding warrants for the following: Possession of a controlled substance, grand theft of a motor vehicle, possession of cocaine and cannabis with intent to sell, and possession of fentanyl.
Paul fired his gun after shouting at Wring 17 times to get on the ground.
Paul later explained his actions to investigators with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and his own agency’s Internal Affairs unit.
When asked why he fired his weapon, Paul said: “Well, the most important thing is that I generally feared for my life. This subject, Melvin Wring, aka the Monster, he’s a known gang member.” He added, “Dealing with these factors and his non-compliance and the fact that he was staring at the barrel of my gun didn’t even phase him.”
At one point Wring “was cornered in the back of the stall like an animal and he’s looking (for) a way out by any means necessary,” Paul told investigators.
It made him nervous when Wring reached near his waistband while he was still in the bathroom, Paul said.
Paul was questioned about the events after he grabbed Wring by the arm, near the restroom stalls.
“He was able to swing his arm around and find an avenue to escape,” Paul said.
Paul was asked whether he thought Paul was trying to disarm him.
His response: “I don’t know, and I wasn’t trying to find out. I was just, I was damn near afraid that if he got my gun out of my hand or knocked it out, I’ll be in a situation where he was able to disarm me and pull his firearm out and shoot me instead.”
Paul acknowledged he was aware of people standing behind Wring at the moment he shot him.
He was asked if he was aware bullets can pass through one person and hit another.
“Absolutely. However, I’m dealing with a violent subject known to carry a firearm,” he replied. “I’m not going to wait till he pulls out a firearm, especially with other people around. I needed to do what I had to do to protect myself and other civilians around the area as well.”
After Wring ran out of the restroom, Paul said he saw Wring drop his left hand toward his waistband and pull something out. (It turned out to be money.) Paul was asked whether he knew if a firearm was ever found on Wring.
“According to the documents and evidence, no,” Paul replied. “But to me, that didn’t matter at that point.”
After Paul fired his gun that day, chaos ensued at the bus terminal.
“Oh my God! Oh my God! You didn’t have to f—— do that,” a woman screamed. “You shot him! You shot him! You shot him!”
Onlookers heard the loud pop of gunfire and moved in closer, taunting Paul, asking if he wants to shoot anyone else. Some began to chant, “bad cop, bad cop.”
Sirens blared in the background as backup officers arrived at the county’s central bus terminal, at 101 NW First Ave. One officer flipped Wring on his stomach and cuffed him.
“Hey, he started reaching bro,” Paul told the officer as they tended to Wring, trying to stop the bleeding.
Wring survived.
‘He knew I was fast’
Wring gave a sworn statement to an FDLE agent investigating the officer who shot him. Wring testified that he knew he had an outstanding warrant. That’s why he ran.
Wring was asked why the officer shot him.
“I was trying to leave out of the bathroom and started running and he shot me in my back, in my butt,” Wring replied. “He shot me because he knew I was fast and he didn’t want me to get away. I guess that’s why he shot me.”
In June 2020, nearly a year after getting shot by Paul, Wring filed a lawsuit against Fort Lauderdale seeking damages.
The city settled the case in August 2023 for $50,000.
The fallout
After the June 2019 incident, Paul was placed on paid administrative leave for eight days — standard protocol after a police shooting, a city spokeswoman said.
Paul returned to work 11 days after the shooting and remained on active duty for several years, becoming a detective in 2021.
During that time, an Internal Affairs investigation was delayed pending the conclusion of an investigation by the State Attorney’s Office.
In March 2023, the Fort Lauderdale Police Department finally received a close-out memo from the State Attorney’s Office. Prosecutors declined to pursue a case, concluding “the facts and evidence do not support a viable prosecution against Paul.”
“Paul knew Wring as a drug dealer who carried a gun, who had multiple outstanding felony warrants, and who was wanted by the Broward Sheriff’s Office,” according to the prosecutors’ close-out memo, dated Feb. 15, 2023. “When Paul encountered Wring, he gave him numerous lawful commands and Wring refused to comply, pulling away from Paul and swiping at him.
“When Wring swung at Paul and turned his body away, going into his pockets as he ran away from Paul and toward civilians, Paul made a split-second decision to stop Paul. Although we have some video of the incident, we do not have a reliable witness to present testimony at trial. Taking all of the facts, evidence and applicable laws into consideration, this office concludes its investigation and will take no further action due to no likelihood of conviction.”
Seth Stoughton, the use-of-force expert hired by the State Attorney’s Office to review the shooting, had problems with the shooting. In his report, he states that Paul’s decision to shoot Wring was “unreasonable and inconsistent with generally accepted practices.”
In this case, there were a number of bystanders standing outside the bathroom when Paul fired his gun.
“Under the circumstances, a reasonable officer in Officer Paul’s position would have known that there were individuals in the immediate area outside the bathroom and that civilians, either pedestrians or vehicle occupants, were highly likely to be in his line of fire as he followed Mr. Wring out of the bathroom,” Stoughton wrote.
He added: “In short, even if a reasonable officer in Ofc. Paul’s position could have reasonably, if mistakenly, believed that Mr. Wring presented an imminent threat of death or great bodily harm, no reasonable officer would have fired with civilians immediately outside the bathroom in the line of fire.”
Stoughton noted that it took Paul more than three minutes after the shooting to check Wring for weapons.
“Officer Paul’s actions after the shooting are inconsistent with those that a reasonable officer who believed that Mr. Wring had been armed with a firearm would take,” Stoughton wrote.
Even though prosecutors opted not to file charges against Paul, the police department placed him on paid administrative leave on March 7, 2023, this time while the agency’s Internal Affairs investigators reviewed the 2019 shooting. At the conclusion of that investigation, the chief at the time, Patrick Lynn, sent a recommendation to then-City Manager Greg Chavarria that Paul be terminated.
Paul remained on paid leave until Oct. 12, 2023, the day he was fired.
His termination came more than four years after the shooting of Wring. Why wait four years? A city spokeswoman had this response: “The Fort Lauderdale Police Department did not get the independent review from the Broward State Attorney’s Office until four years after the incident.”
The lawsuit
Paul, who is Black, filed a federal lawsuit two months after he was fired, claiming racism. The lawsuit makes the claim that Paul suffers from insomnia and requested a new assignment so he would not be on call in the evenings. His request for a new assignment was ignored because he is Black, the lawsuit claims.
“The department has set a precedent of favoritism that has allowed Caucasian detectives the opportunity to laterally transfer these duties with other detectives within the detective bureau when personal circumstances arise,” the lawsuit said.
According to the lawsuit, Paul asserted that his race played a role in being denied an accommodation.
Paul’s lawsuit noted that he was placed on paid administrative leave a month after filing an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint on Feb. 9, 2023. He was terminated eight months later.
In its response to Paul’s lawsuit, Fort Lauderdale filed a document with the court in March 2024 denying the officer’s allegations that his rights had been violated and asserting that all decisions made were based on reasonable factors and were not discriminatory. The city also argued that Paul was fired over the shooting and not qualified to perform the essential functions of the job.
U.S. District Judge Rodney Smith dismissed the lawsuit on May 28 at the request of both parties.
How did he get rehired?
Paul was fired on the recommendation of one chief and hired back on the recommendation of another.
Lynn, the chief who made the recommendation that Paul be fired, retired soon afterward.
A few weeks after Paul was fired, Bill Schultz took over as chief on Nov. 6, 2023.
Schultz made the recommendation to Acting City Manager Susan Grant that Paul be rehired, according to a city spokeswoman.
Under the settlement agreement approved in May, the department hired Paul back under the condition he drop his lawsuit and serve a six-week unpaid suspension.
As part of the settlement, Fort Lauderdale agreed to pay the officer $10,000 to cover his attorney’s fees.
Back to work
Before returning to work, Paul was required to serve an unpaid suspension from May 18 through July 1 for careless or reckless use of a firearm and excessive response to resistance. He is also being required to undergo further training.
As part of the deal, Paul also received $62,000 in back wages and credit for sick and vacation time. In addition, his seniority was restored to his original date of hire on Aug. 24, 2015.
Paul was required to undergo training and meet certain conditions before being recertified by FDLE as an officer. He was officially reinstated on Aug. 19.
He was required to undergo several types of training, including a firearms refresher course, use- of-force training and verbal de-escalation training.
Paul now earns a salary of $102,669 a year.
Jeff Marano, a former union president for several local police agencies, defended Fort Lauderdale’s decision to rehire Paul.
It’s not rare to see an officer fired and later rehired, Marano said.
“If he felt like his life was in danger, I’d say the shooting was justified,” Marano told the Sun Sentinel. “You have to put yourself in the shoes of the officer at the time. Some people’s threat level is different from others. … It’s not all that unusual nowadays for a cop to be hired back. It’s all on a case-by-case basis.”
Suspect in jail
Today, Wring sits in jail on a first-degree murder charge related to a fatal shooting in September 2022 in Fort Lauderdale.
Police say he fired at least two shots at the face and neck of a man coming out of the One Stop Store near the bus terminal on Sept. 10, 2022. He then jumped into the backseat of a waiting car that sped off, police say. The shooting appeared to be unprovoked, according to the arrest report. No mention was made of a possible motive.
Six days later, he was apprehended and taken to jail.
The shooting victim died, prompting prosecutors to upgrade the charges.
Wring now awaits trial on a charge of first-degree murder. He has entered a plea of not guilty.
Susannah Bryan can be reached at sbryan@sunsentinel.com. Follow me on X @Susannah_Bryan