Aug 7, 2008 7:20 am US/Eastern
Miramar Man Charged In Federal Agent's Murder
James Patrick Wonder Faces First Degree Murder Charge
Click here for complete coverage of the shooting of agent Pettit
DAVIE (CBS4) ―
"We did it!" were the first words at a late night news conference Wednesday when police announced that they had charged James Patrick Wonder of Miramar with the murder of Federal Agent Donald Pettit. "We told you we would get you," Pembroke Pines Deputy Chief Mike Segarra said as officers and supporters burst into sustained applause.
"Thank you, thank you everyone," said Pettit's widow, Ileana, who stood with police investigators struggling to hold back tears. "The public, the media, all these people behind me, these law enforcement people, volunteers. You did it, you did it. You found this man."
Wonder was taken into custody by investigators earlier Wednesday at the Universal Kidney Center in Davie, showing up en masse at a Davie strip mall located at Hiatus Road and SR-84 around 2:30 p.m.
Video from Chopper 4 showed the officers gathering outside of several businesses in the mall. They then moved in on the dialysis center where they took the "person of interest" into custody.
Hours later, investigators confirmed that person was Wonder.
Segarra said all of the investigators wanted to be present when Wonder's arrest was announced, and that wonder had talked at length earlier in the evening with investigators.
According to Segarra, wonder and Agent Pettit had an argument in the parking lot of a Pembroke Pines post office, and Wonder fired a single shot, striking the agent and killing him.
His 15 year old daughter was in the car and saw the whole thing, and Wednesday night Segarra said the was "Instrumental" in developing the information leading to his arrest.
Investigators said they were led to wonder and the dialysis clinic by a tip from the public. Segarra said they have located the car Wonder was driving at the time of the shooting, and confirmed that it was a Dodge. Police had been looking for a Dodge 300 as they searched for Pettit's killer.
Another officer said when Wonder was detained Wednesday he was driving a rental car.
Police offered scant details about Wonder or the reason he allegedly shot Pettit, saying more information could come out Thursday.
Earlier Wednesday, dozens of officers swarmed the Malibu Run subdivision, located at NW 2nd Street and 208th Avenue in Pembroke Pines around noon Wednesday when a postal worker spotted a person fitting the suspect's description.
Officers shutdown any access to the development and police helicopters were spotted flying over the area. Officers were seen going door-to-door in the search but apparently, the search turned up empty.
Authorities say 52-year-old customs and border protection agent Donald Pettit was with his young daughter when he was shot by a man during some sort of fight Tuesday morning in the parking lot of the post office.
Police issued a sketch of the suspect based on witness descriptions of a white man, possibly Hispanic, between 50 and 60 years old. They said the man was about six feet tall, medium to heavy build, with gray and white bushy hair and "distinctive sagging cheeks." He was wearing a short-sleeved, plaid green shirt.
A reward for information leading to the suspect's arrest and conviction reached $275-thousand.
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