FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The NAACP held a news conference on Wednesday after two large bullets pierced through the windows of the organization’s Fort Lauderdale building earlier this week.
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Marsha A. Ellison, president of the NAACP branch office at 1100 Sistrunk Boulevard, said she reached out to Chief William C. Schultz because she wanted a full investigation.
Ellison said she called after a Fort Lauderdale detective failed to find a round in the office’s conference room that she later found with the help of a retired detective.
“I am not making a hate issue. I am just making it an issue where the NAACP is getting not good service,” Ellison said.
The shooting was at about 11 p.m., on Monday night, so the office was closed. Two patrol cars were parked in front of the office as a precaution on Tuesday night.
Ellison said she also reached out to the FBI and Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony. She said she was concerned that the shooting was related to the NAACP standing against reinstating former Fort Lauderdale police officer who was fighting in arbitration.
“Somebody needs to be arrested and it needs to be very public,” Sen. Rosalind Osgood said during the news conference adding that she suspects the shooting was intentional.
Detectives with the Fort Lauderdale Police Department’s Gun Intelligence Unit were investigating the shooting. Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean J. Trantalis said detectives will do everything they can to find the shooter.
“We will not stop until we find out who did this,” Trantalis said.
Schultz said he was committed to finding out what went wrong and praised two witnesses who reported what they saw.
The FBI Miami’s civil rights division and ATF are assisting on the case and the department has a pending complaint with ShotSpotter for not reporting the shots fired, Schultz said about the ongoing investigation.
“We are going to be releasing a photograph of a person of interest,” Schultz said.
Watch the report on the shooting