Aug 5, 2008 7:51 pm US/Eastern
Sketch Released, "We're Going To Get This Guy"
Manhunt is underway for the gunman who killed an off-duty federal customs agent
Pembroke Pines (CBS4) ―
Gunfire killed a federal agent in the parking lot of a U.S. post office in Pembroke Pines on Tuesday, where he was found near a dark-colored sedan with its driver's door open and blood-stained clothing laying on the ground.
Deputy Police Chief Mike Segarra, in a late afternoon news conference, said the federal special agent, identified as 52-year-old Donald Pettit, was involved in some sort of "confrontation in the parking area where he was shot in the head" and he died about 3 hours after being rushed to Memorial Regional Hospital.
A father of two, Pettit's 12-year-old daughter was in the car at the time of the shooting.
FBI spokeswoman Judy Orihuela confirmed Pettit was a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent, adding he was off duty. Pettit spent his entire adult life as a public service. He joined the Army when he was just 17-years-old. Pettit spent 20 years in the military before going to work for the Food and Drug Administration. He worked as a criminal investigator for 15 years. Just this past January, Pettit transferred to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency, where he worked as an Internal Affairs investigator.
The shooter is being described as a middle-aged man between 44-55 years old, thick gray hair, wearing a green plaid shirt, and driving a silver-colored Chrysler 300. A sketch of the suspect was released several hours after the shooting.
One witness at the scene told
CBS4 Reporter Ted Scouten, "I heard a single shot behind me." Another witness, Nadine Riggs said, "As I was coming out of the post office, I heard a large, loud boom."
She said when she turned around, she realized the victim's teenage daughter was inside his car.
Riggs added, "I guess she heard the noise, and I saw her looking around and saw what turned out to be her father."
Sgt. Bryan Davis of the Pembroke Pines Police Department said, "It just appears to be some type of altercation in the parking lot. It does not involve any postal employees or any employees here at the center."
Witnesses said the suspect pulled his car up right behind the victim's – then took off seconds after the shooting.
After the shooting, police officials launched a massive manhunt for the gunman. A government helicopter hovered overhead and police officers
appeared at every major intersection near the shooting scene.
Dozens of police also surrounded the post office. Investigators interviewed postal employees, customers and other potential witnesses while looking for any surveillance cameras that might have recorded the shooting.
Anyone with information on the shooting is asked to call Broward Crime Stoppers at at 954-493-TIPS, Pembroke Pines police, 954-431-2200, or online: www.browardcrimestoppers.org.
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