Man who shot cop killed in gunfire after calling 911 from Fort Lauderdale hotel: police

A man who shot a Fort Lauderdale officer was killed during a shootout with police in a hotel room Thursday morning after telling 911 that he had killed a woman at the 17th Street Causeway hotel, according to authorities.

Around 7:40 a.m., Karl Chludinsky told a 911 operator that he killed a woman at the Holiday Inn Express, 1500 SE 17th Street Causeway, Fort Lauderdale Police Chief William Schultz told reporters outside the hotel.

After Chludinsky, a 46-year-old from Margate, didn’t answer calls to his room nor respond to officers standing outside the door, Fort Lauderdale cops stormed the room. That’s when he shot one of the officers, who Schultz said then opened fire before Chludinsky “barricaded himself.”

Moments later, Schultz added that a SWAT team swarmed in, only to find his body and no other person in the room.

It was not immediately known whether the man was killed by the three officers who shot at him or from one of his bullets, Casey Liening, a police spokeswoman, told reporters.

Police did not identify the injured cops.

Schultz said the officer shot during the incident was taken to Broward Health Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries. He’s since been released and is expected to make a full recovery. Another, who was not shot, suffered minor injuries.

The trio of Fort Lauderdale officers who shot at the man will be put on administrative leave as the Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigates, Schultz said.

Legal troubles?

Chludinsky faced both criminal and financial troubles in the past two decades.

In 2020, he was sentenced to more than a year of probation for driving under the influence and possessing meth, according to Broward County court records. Chludinsky had previously been given probation for a cocaine-related charge in 2006.

Up until early this year, American Express National Bank was garnishing his checks for a debit totaling over $8,000 in which the bank sought civil court action, court records reveal.

’Oh my God.’

Karen Bianco of Rhode Island told the Miami Herald she was in a taxi heading to her hotel from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport when she and her fellow traveler spotted the large police presence.

The shooting caused major traffic tie-ups Thursday morning, which cleared up by the afternoon rush hour.

When Bianco got closer, she realized the officers were at the Holiday Inn, where they would be staying Thursday night before leaving on a 10-day cruise the next day.

“We were having such a hard time getting here because of the commotion but we didn’t know,” Bianco said. “And, I went, ‘oh my God.’”