PLANTATION, Fla. – A family was grieving on Tuesday after a father was attacked and killed in front of his wife at a strip mall on Monday night in Plantation.
A man, who asked not to be identified by name over fear of reprisal, said the murder victim was his beloved brother — a father of two who worked as a professional painter and floor installer.
The grieving man said in Spanish that his brother was at the 24-hour Coin Laundry, which the family regularly visited. They were washing and drying clothes when there was noise in the mall’s parking lot.
Drunken men were hitting his pickup truck. He said his brother, who uses the pickup truck for work, asked the men to stop and they attacked him. He didn’t get to fight back.
“One of them stabbed him in the back,” he said in Spanish.
Witnesses said the killer used a screwdriver. Officer Chavez Grant, a spokesperson for the Plantation Police Department, said the victim died at the laundromat, at 544 S. State Road 7.
The property manager of the laundromat, who asked to speak anonymously, said he saw a large puddle of blood near one of the washing machines when he arrived and cleaned it up.
The laundromat’s surveillance video answered questions, and witnesses who were doing their laundry when the murder happened provided descriptions of the killer to police.
Jaheleazar Mann, who visited the laundromat, said he has lived in the neighborhood for about 20 years.
“It’s kind of eerie because this is the first time something like this has happened,” Mann said. “I don’t think it’ll be safe to be here at night alone.”
Detectives asked anyone with information about this or other cases to call Broward County Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477.