FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. _ Already "on a mission" to kill a man he thought had ratted him out, deputies say a Pompano Beach man became enraged when the lights of another car flashed in his eyes.
Clarck Paul, 28, put his car into reverse, asked the other driver if he "had a problem" and opened fire, police said. Carlos Senluis, a 25-year-old college grad, took a bullet in the head that would kill him before the night was over.
That was 10:30 p.m. on Friday in Deerfield Beach.
By 11:04 p.m. Paul had driven a silver Hyundai to Lauderdale Lakes, where he found Lamont "New York" Smalls.
Smalls, who knew Paul as Zoe, was wearing earbuds and sitting on a courtyard wall at an apartment complex. Paul walked up to Smalls and said, "If you're snitching I'm going to kill you'" according to witness accounts detailed in police reports. He fired twice and jumped into the Hyundai and sped off, authorities said.
In the days since the double killing _ and Paul's capture nearly five hours after the second shooting when a police dog tracked his scent to the bed of a pickup truck parked in Pompano Beach _ investigators have tried to make sense of the killings, just 35 minutes apart.
"This suspect actually seemed to be on a mission," said Joy Oglesby, a spokeswoman for the Broward Sheriff's Office.
Authorities say Smalls appears to have been the intended victim from the start. Paul believed Smalls had named him as the shooter in the July 23 attempted murder of Brandon Smith, also known as "Trini," who was shot in the head in the same neighborhood as Smalls. Smith survived, according to investigators, but was either unwilling or unable to assist deputies with information about his shooter. The case remained an open investigation, arrest reports show.
Broward Crime Stoppers had offered a $3,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Smith's attempted murder, according to a flier distributed by the tip-gathering line.
Authorites Tuesday declined to elaborate on the relationship between Paul, Smalls and Smith.
Senluis, the first victim of the night, apparently was in the wrong place at a bad time. Investigators say he was driving near his home when he and Paul exchanged heated words after the headlight flash.
A witness told deputies Paul backed his car up to confront Senluis, asked if he or his passenger "had a problem," and opened fire with a Glock handgun. Two bullets were lodged into the Nissan's passenger door and the windshield was shattered by a third bullet. Senluis later died at a hospital, records show.
Senluis' family gathered at Deerfield Beach High School on Sunday night to mourn the former star baseball player's death. Senluis had recently graduated from Florida Memorial University with a degree in psychology, according to published reports.
"Unfortunately somebody took his life without giving him a chance to fight," Senluis' high school coach, Robert Alonso, told WSVN-TV.
After his arrest, Paul denied being in the silver Hyundai or anywhere near the scene of the Deerfield Beach road-rage shooting, records show. He remains in the Broward Main Jail, held without bond.
