Shooting in West Palm Beach near Dreyfoos School of the Arts
WEST PALM BEACH — A man made it out of a crashed van and into the Dreyfoos School of the Arts theater where he was engaged in a fight with a school police officer when a city police officer arrived and shot him to death Friday afternoon, West Palm Beach police spokesman Mike Jachles said.
Students were on campus, but not in the main theater hall where the shooting happened, Jachles said.
Jachles said the city police were called to the campus when the van crashed and arrived within a minute of that call. About the same time, emergency operators had fielded another call regarding a wrong-way driver in a van of the same description.
It is unclear, if the man had a weapon, Jachles said at a press conference at the school. What was certain, he said, was that the man was having erratically and wound up in a fight on campus filled with students during the school day.
The city’s officer shot once and the man went down. Authorities began CPR immediately, but the man, who has not been identified died.
Dreyfoos students and staff are all accounted for and unharmed.
The incident unfolded just before noon and shortly after dispatch operators received calls about a van going the wrong way on Banyan Boulevard, four blocks north of the school.
Students were winding up lunch period when a van crashed through the school’s closed back metal gates facing Tamarind Avenue. The van plowed through campus, striking a palm tree, taking out several breezeway columns and narrowly missing staff in a golf cart, Jachles said.
A man exited the van and was acting erratically, running around campus. He was confronted by a school police officer in the auditorium. Jachles said the man was in “a violent confrontation” when a city police officer arrived and shot the intruder.
“We were very fortunate that this suspect did not hurt or injure anyone else,” Jachles said.
Police have not identified the man or the officer who pulled the trigger. Per department protocol following a shooting, that officer is on paid leave, Jachles said.
The school day was thrown into emergency lockdown when the van barreled onto the campus that sits north of Okeechobee Boulevard just west of The Square.
The school lunch period was just coming to an end and students were not all in class.
Students at Dreyfoos School of the Arts describe the incident
Lucas Solano, a freshman, said they heard a loud crash as they ate lunch. Immediately, they said, “Droves of people” began to run toward the cafeteria exit.
“It was chaotic,” they said. “I started panicking, but they told us to calm down.”
Lydia Akdag, a sophomore, said she was in the theater building when students began to run.
“What’s happening?’” she shouted. Someone answered as they ran past: “There’s a code red.’”
Akdag started to run, too.
“I tried asking teachers, and all they say is ‘We have it under control,’” she said. “But they’re not really saying anything.”
Teachers led her and a group of other students to the band room, where they waited with the doors shut and lights turned off. Everyone was silent, Akdag said. Police came in around 45 minutes later and led them single-file to the cafeteria.
“I’ve heard stories, but it doesn’t really hit you until it happens to you,” Akdag said.
About a dozen kids ran off campus heading northwest from the school and into Azul Stone on the corner of Tamarind and Fern, where they sheltered with two women working there for about an hour and a half.
By 1:30 pm the students were called back to the school and directed to the gym. They thanked the staff at Azul for providing a place to stay amid the chaos.
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Across town, Bob Sullivan was shopping at Aldi’s when he received a string of text messages from his daughter.
“Hi dad we are on a code red right now. Its real. I love you,” she wrote.
Sullivan dropped his groceries and rushed to the school, imagining the “worst case scenario,” he recounted, fighting back tears.
Meanwhile, his daughter, an 11th-grade visual arts student, took refuge behind a locked door in a women’s locker room as the incident unfolded.
Sullivan arrived to a sea of red and blue lights. Standing behind a strand of yellow police tape near Fern Street and South Sapodilla Avenue, he read new text messages from his daughter.
She heard banging on the door, as someone announced, “Police,” but she was hesitant to leave. Coordinating her rescue of her from the outside of campus, Sullivan spoke with a police officer, who assured her father it was now “100% safe.”
All he could do was wait. Sullivan stared at the campus, eagerly awaiting news about his daughter from him.
Sullivan said his family lived in Parkland in 2018. They felt an immediate wave of grief that followed the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, and on Friday afternoon, those memories came rushing back.
“She is safe but traumatized,” Sullivan said of his daughter.
Dreyfoos is Palm Beach County School District’s premier performing arts high school with roughly 1,400 students enrolled. Scores of seniors, however, finished their last day of classes Thursday and most were not on campus, parents report.
In 2013, two custodians were killed on a campus that was vacant of students. Christopher Marshall, 48, and Ted Orama, 56, died. Javier Burgo, who was on the run for four years, was sentenced to life in prison.
This is a breaking story. Check back to www.PalmBeachPost.com for updates.