LAUDERDALE LAKES, Fla. – Broward Sheriff's Office deputies said they were forced to shoot a man Wednesday who attacked them after they were called to a Lauderdale Lakes apartment complex regarding a disturbance between a man and a woman.
A neighbor told Local 10 News that he heard a commotion outside and recorded the shooting on his cellphone.
In the video, you can hear a deputy tell the suspect, "Get off him," before three shots are fired.
Relatives were inconsolable after finding out that Jean Pedro Pierre, 42, had been killed.
Pierre was taken to Broward Health Medical Center after being shot by the deputy, but he did not survive.
Pierre is well-known to many as "Pedro Lucky," a former club owner and father of two, who once ran for office in Haiti.
"He was my role model ever since I came from Haiti. I always wanted to be like him, because a lot of people from Lauderdale Lakes look up to him," Romeo Pericles said.
BSO investigators said deputies were dispatched to the apartment complex in the 3600 block of Northwest 21st Street at 4:44 p.m. after someone called 911 about a domestic dispute.
"He was trying to separate the two parties. He was violently attacked by the subject," Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said.
Authorities said the deputy called for backup and it was the backup officer who opened fire.
"It's messed up and it's cruel. Like, for real, if he had a gun, that would've been a different story," a neighbor, identified only as Fred, said.
Investigators were back at the apartment complex Thursday morning, using a drone to document the scene.
Neighbors and those who knew and loved Pierre want to know what made the officer fear for his life and choose to use deadly force.
The sheriff could not say whether or not Pierre was armed, but Pierre's cousin, Wendy Louis, claimed that her cousin did not have a weapon on him.
"It doesn't sound like him. (He's) not a monster," family friend Nikita Dulcio said.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the shooting.