Phil Foster gunman fatally shot man he feared was boarding his boat, PBSO says in murder arrest

RIVIERA BEACH — An 84-year-old man is facing a murder charge after investigators said he shot and killed a man he feared was attempting to board his boat without permission on Sept. 22, the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office said.

The sheriff's office said a man identified as Papaver Dubois fired multiple times at 39-year-old Joshua Lee Bradshaw in the waters off Phil Foster Park in Riviera Beach and struck him twice.

One person who was at the scene but did not see the shooting reported hearing Dubois warning Bradshaw to "stay away from my boat" before firing, according to his arrest report, made public Tuesday.

Bradshaw, who lived in the Houston suburb of Huffman, Texas, fell from the port side of his own boat into the Intracoastal Waterway after being shot, the witnesses said.

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The sheriff's office said Dubois has no fixed address. He faces charges of second-degree murder with a firearm and of shooting into an occupied vessel.

Dubois remained in custody Tuesday. During a hearing Saturday, Circuit Judge Melanie D. Surber ordered him held without bail. The Palm Beach County Public Defender's Office represented Dubois at the hearing. As a policy, it does not comment on open cases.

Eyewitness accounts say that Bradshaw was piloting a small vessel and waving to other boaters before drawing close to Dubois' 24-foot Bay Liner sailboat near the park, which is at the east end of the Blue Heron Boulevard bridge.

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According to his arrest report, Dubois said he thought Bradshaw was trying to climb onto his vessel before he shot at him. One eyewitness said Bradshaw never attempted to get on the vessel and was at least 5 feet away when the confrontation took place. PBSO recovered his body with the help of its helicopter.

Investigators searched the Bay Liner and found a shell casing which they identified as a Hornady 9mm and a Smith & Wesson 9mm pistol, according to Dubois' arrest report. Witnesses offered differing totals on the number of shots fired, with one saying three and another that it might be as high as seven.

Arianna Otero is a breaking news reporter for The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at aotero@gannett.com or on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, at @ari_v_otero. Support local journalism: Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Fatal shooting at Phil Foster Park: Gunman feared man about to board boat