PLANTATION, Fla. – Plantation police are searching for a 27-year-old man who they said fatally shot his stepfather over the weekend.
According to authorities, Haile Selassie Richards shot the victim, Clayous “Paul” Peart, 57, on Saturday inside a home in the 7000 block of West Sunrise Boulevard.
Police said Richards’ mother, who is also the wife of the victim, was present at the time of the shooting.
“Everybody thought that Paul was just the coolest guy,” William Yarrow, the president of Peart’s building association, said. “He was just a gentle soul.”
According to police, Richards then fled the scene in his mother’s vehicle before crashing the car in the 6500 block of West Sunrise Boulevard, where he bailed out of the vehicle and fled on foot.
Police officers set up perimeters in both Plantation and Sunrise, where police K-9s assisted in the search, along with a Broward Sheriff’s Office Aviation unit, but Richards has not yet been found.
Police confirmed that Richards is wanted on a charge of murder in the first degree, with additional charges pending.
Police described Richards as a Black male of Jamaican descent, who is 5 feet, 5 inches tall and weighs about 120 pounds. He has a large RIP cross tattoo on his right shoulder.
A motive for the shooting has not been released.
“Something (was) going on between Paul and this individual, but no one thought that he would get a bullet and subsequently (die) from the gunshot,” Yarrow said.
Anyone with information about Richards’ whereabouts is asked to call Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477. A reward of up to $10,000 is being offered for information that leads to an arrest.