Officer shot, suspect ‘accounted for’ near Fort Lauderdale hotel

FORT LAUDERDALE — A police officer was shot Thursday morning, and a suspect is dead after shooting erupted near a hotel on Southeast 17th Street near Port Everglades.

The officer has been taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, Fort Lauderdale Police confirmed. An update on the police feed on X, formerly known as Twitter, says the suspect “is accounted for.”

A massive police presence brought the area to a virtual halt about 8:30 a.m. Wednesday.

The shooting apparently started on the pool deck right above the parking garage at the Holiday Inn Express Fort Lauderdale Cruise Airport. “We’re moving down here. We were waking up to have breakfast at the hotel, and  staff pushed everyone into an event room,” said hotel guest Alexis Boettcher, of Cleveland Ohio. “I came downstairs. They told me there was an active shooter and I couldn’t go back in the building.”

Boettcher and her boyfriend, Luis Castanedo , had noticed streams of police cars arriving when they got up Thursday morning. He went down to get breakfast while she went outside to see what was going on. Then Castanedo heard a shot fired and the couple was separated.

Castanedo was put into a conference room with about 15 other hotel guests, including families with children, he said, the lights shut off. Hotel staff told them there was an active shooter. Quietly, they went on their phones to try to find out what was going on.

The two finally reunited outside the hotel later Thursday morning.

 

Asked how he felt, Castanedo said, “I don’t know.” He was still feeling the adrenaline.

He said hotel staff seemed to know what they were doing, and it was clearly a drill they had practiced before.

Alejandro Morales, 23, had just arrived in Fort lauderdale from New Orleans Thursday morning for the Call of Duty tournament scheduled to begin at 12:30 when his Uber got stuck in the chaos and he saw the caution tape and dozens of police cars out front.

“I was going to leave my bag and go to the event but I don’t think that’s going to happen,” Morales said.

He said he asked a police officer how long this would be going on and the officer said likely all day.

Some roads remain shut down in the area around the hotel while the police and SWAT teams continue to investigate.

This is a developing story, so check back for updates. Click here to have breaking news alerts sent directly to your inbox.