FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - Police have arrested a man in connection to the fatal shooting of a guest at a Fort Lauderdale Beach hotel that left other visitors in shock.
Cellphone video showed Fort Lauderdale Police officers and paramedics with Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue as they surrounded the Ocean Mile Hotel, early Wednesday morning.
“Rescue, respond to a shooting. Caller advising someone got shot,” a dispatcher said in radio transmissions.
On Friday morning, 40-year-old Matthew Mallory refused his appearance in court on first-degree murder charges.
On Thursday, the suspect did stand before a judge for different charges.
“Good morning, sir. You’re charged with trespassing property, not a structure or conveyance,” said Broward County Circuit Judge Chris Brown.
Investigators said the victim was found in the breezeway of the hotel with a gunshot wound to the chest.
“I just heard a really loud bang. It sounded to me like a firework,” said hotel guest Meg Gill. “Really loud, really scary. We were frozen for a minute, looked out the window to see all the sirens and everyone running around.”
“You could hear people, like, in the hallways and in the corridors outside,” said hotel guest Izzy Blakey. “We heard someone like shouting out the phone and the address [of the hotel], obviously to the police.”
Detectives said that a bullet was fired just after midnight at the hotel, located along A1A, near Northeast 41st Street, adding that the shooting appears to have been a random attack.
Blakey and Gill, who are visiting from England, said they were staying on the third floor when they heard the chaos.
“We looked down into the lobby area near the pool, and there was a guy laid on the floor lifeless,” said Gill, “and they were trying to resuscitate him and things, and then, yeah, it was really bad, really scary.”
“They were giving, like, CPR to the guy in the floor. We heard the defibrillator, the woman’s voice that comes out of the defib, the shocks,” said Blakey. “Obviously, that didn’t work.”
Paramedics rushed the victim to the emergency room, where police said he died.
“We were panicked and thinking, ‘Where is the guy that did it? Where is he now?'” said Blakey. “Soon we found out he, like, ran off and they were trying to find him.
Mallory, who, police said, is possibly homeless, was arrested after officers found the suspect hours later, across the street from the crime scene, trespassing at a different hotel.
“I’m really, really, really shocked because I didn’t think that would be happening here, in an area like this,” said Tristanie Betineli, who is visiting from Louisiana.
In court Thursday afternoon, Brown heard Mallory’s most recent criminal history.
“A 2022 battery, 2021 fleeing and alluding, three separate trespassing [charges] in 2020,” said a prosecutor.
Tourists were left stunned that their vacation would end up like this.
“Obviously, bad things happen everywhere, but a shooting in a hotel is not what you expect on your first day on vacation,” said Blakey. “It is really scary.”
As of Friday morning, police have not identified the victim. They do not believe he knew the suspect.
Mallory remains at the Broward County Jail on a no-bond hold.
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