(This story was updated with new information.)
BOCA RATON — A 30-year-old man is suspected of killing two people and wounding a third during a robbery outside a beachfront hotel in Boca Raton on Friday. He was arrested nearly 500 miles north of the crime scene and awaits extradition to Palm Beach County.
The Sheriff’s Office in Laurens County, Georgia, on Saturday arrested De’Vante Moss, of Boynton Beach. His arrest in the county southeast of Macon came within 24 hours of the double homicide at 365 Ocean, an extended-stay hotel on North Ocean Boulevard near East Palmetto Park Road.
According to Boca Raton police, witnesses at the hotel said they saw a man run out of a guest’s room with a woman’s purse. The woman chased the man and tried to stop him from fleeing in a silver Jaguar.
Witnesses said two men joined the woman and tried to prevent the man from leaving, prompting him to draw a gun and shoot. Investigators on Saturday did not disclose the names of those either killed or wounded in the shooting, saying they still were notifying their next of kin.
Police responded at about 5 p.m. Friday to the 300 block of North Ocean, opposite South Beach Park. They closed the beachfront road for about seven hours as they investigated, combing video from nearby surveillance cameras for the suspect’s license-plate number.
Police said they entered the plate number into a nationwide database of wanted vehicles, alerting authorities across the country and leading to Moss’ arrest.
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Gunshots sounded like firecrackers, neighbors say
Police did not say whether Moss was a guest at the hotel, or whether he and the victims knew one another. An officer on the scene Saturday declined to answer questions. The agency’s spokesperson, Officer Jessica Desir, did not immediately respond to calls by The Palm Beach Post.
Neighbors who heard the gunfire spoke on the condition of anonymity, made wary by the shooting. One father and son who live in a nearby condominium said they heard what sounded like a series of firecrackers shortly after 5 p.m. — four metallic pops, then a pause, then two more.
“Me and my parents went to the kitchen window and looked out,” the younger of the two said. “We saw somebody running this way, ducking, somebody we didn’t know.”
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The family called the police and was told to stay inside and away from the windows. The men estimated Boca Raton officers arrived between 10 and 15 minutes later with their weapons drawn.
Despite the dispatcher’s instructions, the family watched from their window while officers fanned out from the property on the west side of North Ocean with their guns drawn, appearing to search for the suspect in neighboring backyards after having swept the hotel.
“It’s scary, because nothing like this ever happens here,” the son said.
The homicides were the second and third in Boca Raton in recent weeks, following a murder-suicide on Labor Day.
Julius Whigham II and Hannah Phillips are criminal justice and public safety reporters for The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at [email protected] and [email protected]. Help support our journalism; subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Arrest in Boca double homicide after suspected gunman found in Georgia
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