Julius Whigham IIPalm Beach Post
WEST PALM BEACH — Vowing to crack down on gang activity in Palm Beach County, sheriff's officials and prosecutors have announced the arrests of eight men with suspected gang ties and connections to several shootings over the past four years.
The men taken into custody range in age from 20 to 25. They are suspected of carrying out a series of retaliatory shootings in response to the 2019 murders of two teens at a park in suburban West Palm Beach, and conspiring to kill a man who died in an unsolved 2021 homicide in Royal Palm Beach, Maj. Talal Masri of the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office said.
PBSO officials described a two-year investigation by the agency's gang unit and a cycle of violence by suspected gang members that stretched to various reaches of the county.
“We were able to take some very, very dangerous people off of the streets and out of the neighborhood, " Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said during at a Nov. 9 news conference at PBSO's Satellite Office in suburban West Palm Beach.
"It’s an ongoing initiative. Sometimes people don’t see exactly what we’re doing because it’s a lot of undercover (work). But these are some dangerous people that we’ve taken off the street."
Seven defendants face charges of attempted first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and another faces a single count of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. Two were juveniles at the time of their alleged crimes, according to court records.
PBSO: Violence began when two teens were murdered at park in 2019
During the news conference, officials described their efforts to stop gang violence in Palm Beach County.
According to PBSO, two defendants are relatives of Moltere Charles Jr., one of two teens fatally shot in the early morning hours of Jan. 13, 2019 at Lake Belvedere Estates park, off Military Trail near Palm Beach International Airport.
Charles, a 17-year-old senior at Riviera Beach Prep Academy, and Frederick Rosemond, a 16-year-old junior at Royal Palm Beach High School, went to the park after attending a late-night birthday party nearby. A third person was wounded in the attack.
In the days after the teens' deaths, a woman related to Charles told The Palm Beach Post that Charles, Rosemond and a group of friends left the party to avoid a confrontation with a group of other boys.
Masri said the Lake Belvedere Estates shooting sparked a rash of violence across the county.
'We did make an arrest (on) firearm-related charges to the initial suspect on that case. However, associates of the people that were murdered, the victim's friends or acquaintances, decided to to do some of the work on their own and started retaliatory shootings in different places in the county," he said.
Masri said the person arrested on firearms charges was eventually charged in the teens' deaths, but the cycle of violence continued.
Family: Teens killed after attending birthday party near West Palm
"(They) continued with the shootings, continued with firing at different places, at parties, at parks, streets, roadways, houses, and obviously we cannot have that in Palm Beach County," he said.
In May 2021, PBSO's gang unit responded to a shooting during a "Senior Skip Day" party at Ocean Reef Park in Singer Island. Witnesses told investigators two BMWs arrived and multiple people climbed out and began firing at the crowd. Some attending the party returned fire in self-defense.
Several spent .762 and 9 mm shell casings were found near the area where the BMWs entered and exited the park, a PBSO arrest report said. One alleged gang member was found at St. Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach, where he received treatment for a gunshot wound to his shoulder, the report said.
Change in PBSO procedure helped lead to the arrests
Masri also referenced a June 2021 fatal shooting that occurred on Belvedere Road near State Road 7 that claimed the life of Kenneth Bowles.
Masri said that the shooter in Bowles' death has not been identified, but investigators have evidence that the alleged gang members conspired to kill Bowles. Crime Stoppers of Palm Beach County is offering a $3,000 for information leading to the arrest of the person who killed Bowles.
Masri credited the arrests, in part, to a change in procedure in 2018 requiring that every shooting within PBSO's jurisdiction be assigned to a detective, including cases where no injury occurred, and that every gun recovered by the agency be tested and checked against a national database for firearms.
The tests and checks allowed investigators to place suspects at different shootings by matching shell casings, Masri said.
'We went out to every shooting in Palm Beach County that involved the sheriff's office jurisdiction, collected evidence, collected videos, collected casings and that (is) what led us to these arrests," he said.
Bradshaw vowed to bring those who commit acts of violence to justice.
“They think they can do what they want to and go off to maybe another county, go off to another state or just fade away into the neighborhoods and keep on doing what they’re doing," he said. "Well, here’s a news flash for them. You do something in this county, you’re a gang member in this county, we’re going to keep on tracking you. We’re going to prosecute you. I don’t care where you’re at in the United States."
Julius Whigham II is a criminal justice and public safety reporter for The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at jwhigham@pbpost.com and follow him on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, at @JuliusWhigham. Help support our work: Subscribe today.
