Two Broward Sheriff’s deputies are on administrative assignment after a shootout Tuesday night in Pompano Beach with a man who had previous run-ins with law enforcement.
Scott Simonelli, 51, of Pompano Beach, survived after being shot three times by the two deputies, Sheriff Gregory Tony said at a news conference Wednesday afternoon. He was hospitalized and is expected to recover.
A neighbor in Simonelli’s apartment complex, near the 700 block of Northwest Fifth Avenue, called 911 about 9:30 p.m. and said a neighbor was “firing gunshots up into the ceiling and in through the windows” of that family’s apartment, Tony said. Simonelli first tried to shoot through the roof inside his own apartment before shooting through the windows, the sheriff said.
A deputy who was not at the scene heard about the call and told the responding deputies over radio that he knew of Simonelli and that he was violent and had guns, Tony said.
“We’ve had encounters with him in the past related to Baker Acts and other instability issues and threats of violence within the community. So he was known to us,” Tony said.
Deputies arrived within four minutes, and everything was quiet, Tony said. They did not know immediately where the shooter was.
As deputies were assessing the scene, a light on one of the deputy’s guns flickered, which “gave away” where the deputies were positioned, Tony said. Simonelli, who was hiding behind trash cans, shot about 20 rounds from a semi-automatic rifle at four of the deputies. Two deputies shot back.
Body-worn camera video played at the news conference Wednesday showed Simonelli throw his gun out from his hiding place behind a row of trash cans on the side of the apartment building after the shootout with deputies. They then treated Simonelli until Pompano Beach Fire Rescue arrived and took him to a hospital.
Simonelli had not been booked into jail as of Wednesday night.
Simonelli was arrested in November 2023 on counts of aggravated assault, improper exhibition of a firearm and using a firearm under the influence of alcohol after an argument with his neighbor who lived in the apartment above him because he heard the neighbor’s child crying, according to a probable cause affidavit. Simonelli was pacing in the apartment complex’s common area, yelling about his neighbors being “bad neighbors” while holding a gun, the affidavit said. Prosecutors did not pursue the charges, Broward court records show.
Tony said Simonelli had been admitted to a hospital under the Baker Act in November 2023.
Simonelli faces one count of attempted homicide of a law enforcement officer and two counts of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer in connection with the shootout Tuesday, according to the Sheriff’s Office. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement will investigate the deputies’ use of force.
The two deputies who shot at Simonelli are now on administrative assignment, as is customary.
FDLE is investigating at least three other instances so far this year where BSO deputies fatally shot someone. In March, three deputies shot and killed Rafael A. Molina, a Broward County Transit employee, who authorities said minutes earlier had shot his colleague Warren Chambers to death.
In February, a deputy shot and killed a man in Weston after he got out of a car while armed with a weapon and “charged” at the deputies, the Sheriff’s Office said at the time. The man, Mario Bonilla, had recently been reported missing.
In January, a man wanted in connection with a domestic violence incident was shot and killed by deputies in Oakland Park during a standoff and “confrontation,” the Sheriff’s Office said previously.
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Source: sun-sentinel
