The Broward County Transit employee who was killed by deputies in Pompano Beach late Wednesday ambushed an unsuspecting colleague inside their work building and shot him at point-blank range, then shot at deputies, who shot back, killing him, Broward County Sheriff Gregory Tony said at a news conference Friday.
The county employee who three deputies fatally shot was identified Friday as Rafael A. Molina, 59, of Lake Worth Beach. The county employee who authorities said Molina shot was Warren H. Chambers, 42, of Apopka in Central Florida.
Tony did not provide information Friday about any motive for the shooting of Chambers.
“We don’t know just yet,” Tony said. “It’s still too early.” Investigators are interviewing witnesses and family members of both men, the sheriff said.
Both Chambers and Molina were employees at Broward County Copans Regional Transit Center, a gated facility with a guardhouse that contains county buses at 3201 West Copans Road. Chambers was hired in 2018, and Molina was hired in 2007, a county official told the South Florida Sun Sentinel on Friday.
Molina was working Wednesday shortly after 11 p.m. at the transit center. Surveillance video from inside the building showdd him going into a locker room, changing out of his work uniform and waiting outside of the room for several minutes, holding a lunchbox, Tony said.
Deputies kill man who shot Broward Transit co-worker to death, Sheriff’s Office says
When Chambers walked out of the room, Molina pulled a gun out of the lunchbox and shot him multiple times at “point-blank range,” Tony said.
“As you can imagine, this creates an enormous amount of chaos for that work environment,” Tony said. “Some employees were able to witness it or catch the tail end of it. They’re seeing their colleague walking around these hallways, roaming, going into one room to the next, went into another break room, gun still exposed in his hands.”
Dispatchers received the first 911 calls about four minutes after the shooting, at 11:27 p.m., Tony said. The Sheriff’s Office released about 20 minutes of 911 calls Friday afternoon.
The calls show a horrific scene of employees who locked themselves inside an office in the building after Chambers was shot, unsure of where Molina had gone, while others called 911 after running outside. One caller reported seeing Molina walking around the building with the gun still in his hand. In one call, a man could be heard in the background saying he witnessed Chambers be shot. Dispatchers were still talking with the callers when the sound of the second shooting with deputies began.
Molina was seen on the video “formulating, contemplating, further planning about what his next move was going to be,” Tony said. He used a hammer to smash a cell phone, then he went into an empty bus on the property “in an ambush position,” where he waited for the deputies, Tony said.
Deputies arrived within three minutes of the first 911 call, Tony said. Molina stepped out of the bus and shot about six times at the deputies. The three deputies shot back 49 times, Tony said.
The Sheriff’s Office released body-worn camera footage of the shooting Friday, showing at least six deputies running up toward an open garage of buses with guns drawn. A volley of gunshots could be heard for about 10 seconds. A gun could be seen on the ground near Molina after he was shot outside of one of the buses in the garage.
Tony identified the deputies Friday as Crime Suppression Team Sgt. Noel Mercado, 44, a veteran who has been with the Sheriff’s Office for more than two decades; Crime Suppression Team Deputy Joseph Sherbo, 31, who is approaching his fourth year with BSO; and Deputy Richard Delgaudio, 30, who was hired in January 2023.
They all have been placed on administrative assignment, per the Sheriff’s Office policy. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the shooting with the deputies.