Nov 8, 2007 8:42 am US/Eastern
Michael Mazza Transferred To Miami Jail
Police: Suspect Confessed To Deputy Paul Rein Shooting
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
The prisoner wanted for the murder of a BSO deputy Wednesday has reportedly confessed to the crime.
40-year old Michael Mazza confessed to shooting Broward sheriff's Deputy Paul Rein with the officer's own gun according to Acting Sheriff Al Lamberti.
According to BSO, 76-year old Deputy Paul Rein was shot by Mazza while he transported the suspect to court in the morning. Rein died after arriving at the hospital. He was shot twice, and one bullet pierced through his upper chest and exited his lower back.
BSO Sheriff Al Lamberti says Deputy Paul Rein was a 20-year veteran of the department's transport division.
Sheriff Lamberti said Deputy Rein picked up Mazza from the North Broward Detention Center Wednesday morning. He said it was a routine pickup, but along the way Mazza overpowered Deputy Rein inside the BSO medical transport van. Investigators say Mazza shot Deputy Rein and pushed him out of the van in a parking lot near the intersection of North Powerline Road and Hammondville Road in Pompano Beach.
Mazza then escaped with the van and the deputy's weapon.
The van was at 27th Avenue and Davie Boulevard, in the parking lot of a Flanigan's Restaurant, about twenty miles away from the original shooting scene in Pompano Beach.
The man, who drove Mazza to the Uptown Pawn and Jewelry shop at 60th Avenue and Hollywood Boulevard, says that Mazza wasn't wearing handcuffs when he asked for a lift.
The man says they even ate at a soup kitchen. But it wasn't until he saw Mazza's picture on the television that he realized his passenger was a fugitive.
Law enforcement officers swooped in and took Mazza into custody. The deputy's missing gun was recovered with Mazza, according to BSO Sheriff Al Lamberti. He was transported to BSO Headquarters where they questioned him and then moved him to the Broward County Courthouse to have an emergency hearing where he was officially charged with First Degree Muder and Escape.
Upon being escorted into the BSO building in handcuffs, he could be seen limping. It appeared he had an injury to his right ankle or foot.
A depressed-looking Mazza was transported into the courtroom on a wheelchair and was wearing a red jumpsuit. Mazza was booked in the Miami-Dade County Jail. BSO made this decision as a precaution to not create the suspicion of prisoner mistreatment.
According to BSO spokesman Eliott Cohen, Mazza was heading to court for the second day of a trial on charges of bank robbery and eluding police. Mazza was already serving a life prison term for other armed robberies. BSO said Mazza was being transported in a medical van because he had been complaining of a back problem, but they haven't disclosed whether it was a legitimate back problem or fabricated as part of the escape plan.
CBS4 news partners The Miami Herald report Mazza was in a wheelchair and somehow managed to loop his restraint chains around Deputy Rein's neck, according to a BSO source. Authorities say Mazza may have planned the escape and possibly had help fleeing. Last year, police said, Mazza robbed a bank in Coral Springs and then, while pursued by police, ran into a car containing two women. He has a long history of armed robberies. Mazza's attorney, Maurice Graham, filed a mistrial Wednesday morning at court, where he and prosecutors listened to radio updates about the search for Mazza.
During the manhunt for Mazza, all 283 Broward County Public and charter schools, along with Catholic schools, were placed under a precautionary lockdown but that district-wide lockdown has since been lifted.
This is the third Broward deputy shot in the last three months.
Deputy Maury Hernandez was shot in the head Aug. 6 during a traffic stop. He was released from the hospital Oct. 25.
Sergeant Chris Reyka, 51, was fatally shot as he was looking for stolen vehicles behind a drug store Aug. 10. His killer is still being sought.
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