WESTON, FLA. (WSVN) - - An investigation is underway after, the Broward Sheriff’s Office said, one person was fatally shot by a deputy in Weston. The man who was killed was reported missing by his family on Saturday.
BSO deputies arrived at the scene at 1449 Capri Lane, Monday morning.
According to deputies, they responded to a suspicious call. There was then an altercation with someone inside a vehicle and shots were fired.
When fire rescue crews arrived at the scene, at around 9 a.m., one person was pronounced dead on the scene.
“Shortly after 9 a.m., the Broward Sheriff’s Office received some information that there was a suspicious individual in a vehicle parked in the 1400 block of Capri Lane in an apartment complex in Weston,” said BSO Spokesperson Veda Coleman-Wright. “Deputies responded, they made contact with this individual. He got out of his car, he was armed with a weapon, they gave him verbal commands to drop the weapon. Unfortunately, he did not, causing one of our deputies to fire his weapon.”
The deceased was identified as 55-year-old Mario Bonilla.
On Monday, someone saw Bonilla’s car at an apartment complex and contacted BSO with the information. Deputies said that Bonilla’s family also saw the social media post.
“She said her husband’s vehicle is on Twitter at an address and she wants the address checked,” a dispatcher is heard saying.
Coleman-Wright said no other injuries were reported. She also confirmed that Bonilla charged at deputies.
“He did charge at the deputies, so I’ll give you that information,” she said.
Bonilla’s mother-in-law, Wanda Cordero, was also at the scene and said that he may have been struggling with mental health issues, which could have led up to the deputy-involved shooting.
“I really don’t know what happened,” Cordero said. “He’s been missing and I don’t know if it was a mental issue, but he had no signs at all, at all. He was the happiest man in the world.”
Cordero said that Bonilla did not live at the apartment complex where his vehicle was.
“For some reason, we don’t know why, we don’t know why,” she said. “He didn’t say he was upset at all. He said, ‘I’m sorry. I love you, I love you, I love Casper,’ that’s a dog, ‘I love my family. Everybody.'”
According to Cordero, he left a suicide note behind when he went missing.
Monday’s commotion woke up neighbors.
“The thing that woke me up was the yelling, then I heard a gunshot,” said a neighbor.
The deputy who shot Bonilla was placed on administrative assignment.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement has taken over the investigation, which is standard whenever there is a police officer or deputy involved in a shooting.
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