In Belle Glade, a bullet meant for someone else killed 8-year-old Ronziyah Atkins as she stood on a home's front porch in February. In West Palm Beach, gunfire killed a 16-month-old child known –"Baby Kaleb"– seated in a vehicle with his parents in April.
In Greenacres, a 15-year-old boy and his 20-year-old brother were killed in their home in June. Investigators have not named them but said their mother's boyfriend shot them.
They among were among 51people killed in Palm Beach County during the first half of 2022, putting the county on pace to surpass 100 homicides for the fifth time in the past six years, according to law enforcement and medical examiner records.
- Gunfire killed more people than any other means. Investigatorsreportedat least 33 gun-related deaths as of June 30. Since 2017, guns have accounted for 79 homicide deaths or more each year, including 89 in 2021, out of 113 homicide deaths in total.
- At least six of the fatal shootings were domestic, including a murder-suicideinvolving an elderly couple in suburban Boynton Beach in February.
- Few homicide victims have been named publicly, with authorities only disclosing the identities of 11 people. In most cases, authorities citied a state amendment modeled after California's Marsy's Law. The amendment allows crime victims or their families to request that their names be withheld from public reports.
- The county's homicide total includes one officer-involved fatal shooting, which took place in May at the Dreyfoos School of the of the Arts in West Palm Beach.Romen Phelps, 33, died during the confrontation.
- At least one homicide was in self-defense, investigators say.In February, a homeowner shot and killed an intruder during a confrontation in West Palm Beach, police said. The homeowner was not charged. The medical examiner counts a death caused by another person as homicide, including acts that are considered to be legally justified.
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None of Palm Beach County's 51 homicides came in mass shootings
And while mass shootings during the first half of year have fueled conversations nationally about gun violence — such as the ones this month at a Fourth of July parade in Illinois and in May at a Texas elementary school and a supermarket in Buffalo, N.Y. – none were reportedin Palm Beach County, wheresuch incidents have been rare.
Since 2009, when The Palm Beach Post began tracking homicide deaths through an interactive database, the county has had only four mass shootings — incidents in which four or more people, not including the gunman, are killed or wounded by gunfire. None have occurred in the past five years; the 51 homicides this year came in 48 separate shooting incidents, records show.
The most recent mass shootingoccurred in 2017, when three people died and another sustained serious injuries in a backyard shooting at a home in Jupiter, records show.
On the night of Feb. 5, 2017, Sean Henry, 25, Brandi El-Salhy, 24, and Kelli Doherty, 20, were killed, and Charles Vorpagel was wounded outside Vorpagel’s rented house on Mohawk Street, a neighborhood of single-family homes south of Indiantown Road.
A jury found Christopher Vasata guilty of three counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder in 2019. He was later sentenced to life in prison.Last November, ajudge ruled his co-defendant, Marcus Steward, incompetent to stand trial and ordered that Steward undergo a mental health evaluation. Steward's next hearing is scheduled for November.
Kelly Drane, research director for the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, described mass shootings as a part of the larger epidemic of gun violence, accounting for about 1 percent of all gun-related deaths.
In many cases, she said, mass shootings have involved parties that were known to each other.
"Studies have shown that 59 percent of mass shootings between 2014 and 2019 were related to domestic violence, meaning that at least one victim of the shooting was a dating partner or a family member of the perpetrator," she said.
The county’s deadliest mass shooting in recent memory occurred nearly 12 years ago, when a man in Riviera Beach shot and killed his estranged wife, killed four of her children and wounded another child before taking his own life.
According to police accounts, on the morning of Sep. 27, 2010, Patrick Dell entered the home he once shared with Natasha Whyte-Dell and shot her in a fit of rage and jealousy. He targeted five children who had otherfathers, leaving his twochildren unharmed.As police responded to the home, Dell killed himself.
Three fatal shootings through June 30 took at least two lives, records show
While no mass shootings were recorded in the county this year, three fatal shooting incidents involvedat least two victims as of June 30.
In April, a woman in Palm Beach Gardens shot and killed her fiancé and her mother, telling police officers thatoccult forces made her commit the acts, according to police reports. Alexandra Cupolo is facing first-degree murder chargesin the deaths of Dr. Andrew Sturm, her fiancé, and Jacqueline Cupolo, her mother.
During the same month, a man and a woman were killed and another person was wounded by an unknown gunman in western Palm Beach County in a park located near Lake Okeechobee. The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office has not released their names.
And in June, authorities in Greenacres alleged in June that a man shot and killed his girlfriend’s 15- and 20-year-old sons. William Vazquez is facing two counts of first-degree murder.
Since July 1, authorities have reported three additional cases involving multiple victims, including three people found dead July 17 in a West Palm Beach condominium.
At least four homicides involved juveniles, including the killing of 8-year-old RonziyahAtkins, who died Feb. 4 when someone fired shots from a passing vehicle as the girl stood on the front porch of a home on Southeast First Street inBelle Glade.
Investigators later arrestedAndrew JamesThomas on charges of first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder, saying that another person at the residence was likely his intended target.
InApril, a 16-month-boy identified by West Palm Beach police as "Baby Kaleb" was seated in a vehicle withhis mother and father near Fourth Street and Douglass Avenue when an unknown gunman fired shots, killing the toddler and grazing his mother.
Police announced a $40,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible.
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 Twitter at @JuliusWhigham. Help support our work: Subscribe today.
