A man who was shot multiple times by a Fort Lauderdale Police officer in January and later died at a hospital pulled out a replica gun from his waistband while trying to run away in the moments before he was shot, newly released body-worn camera video shows.
Fort Lauderdale Police on Thursday released the name of the officer, the name of the man who was killed and new details of what led up to the Jan. 19 shooting at a gas station in the 3100 block of Davie Boulevard.
Sgt. Trevor Thomas, the officer involved, has since returned to full duty after an initial review by the department’s Internal Affairs, spokesperson Casey Liening said in a news release.
That afternoon, Thomas was working on a traffic enforcement plan to combat aggressive drivers. He tried to stop a car in the 100 block of Southwest 27th Avenue shortly after 3 p.m., but the driver sped away. He was later identified as Chad Mabray, Jr., 23, of Fort Lauderdale. Thomas put out an alert of the silver Mercedes to other officers over radio, the body-worn camera video showed.
An unidentified officer said over radio not long later that he saw the car pulling into a gas station on Davie Boulevard. That officer and Thomas both pulled into the Chevron parking lot, and Mabray Jr. was shot within seconds, the video showed.
Thomas and Mabray Jr. got out of their cars about the same time, and Mabray Jr. immediately started to run away from Thomas. Mabray Jr. while running was seen holding a tan gun in his hand, which later was found to be an air-powered replica. It did not have any markings or identifiers showing that it was a replica, the police department said in its news release.
Mabray Jr. made it to a grassy corner of the parking lot before he was shot multiple times by Thomas and fell to the ground, the video showed. The second officer took the replica gun from the ground as Thomas sat on top of Mabray Jr.
Mabray Jr. was taken to Broward Health Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is still investigating in addition to the police department’s Internal Affairs, as is standard procedure.
The Jan. 19 shooting was the second of the year involving an officer in South Florida.
Fort Lauderdale Officers Dellica Harris and Robert Strout 10 days earlier shot at Roberson Fertil, 31, who had started a fire in the parking lot of a building and was throwing “incendiary devices” toward them when they arrived, the police department previously said. He was pronounced dead at the scene. The police department released 911 calls and body-worn camera of that shooting in March.
Also in January, Fort Lauderdale Lt. Jonathan Bohm shot and killed Damian Orozco, 49, at a marina and RV park after the property manager asked him to handle a disturbance call. The police department released dispatch audio of that call. The lieutenant, who was off duty, was not wearing a body camera at the time.
At least 10 shootings with officers have happened in South Florida since the start of the year.
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