West Palm Beach police name man killed by officer in Paradise Cove condo shooting
WEST PALM BEACH — City police have formally identified the man who a police officer shot and killed Monday during an encounter outside a West Palm Beach condominium complex.
Investigators say John McKinzie Jr., 27, of Lauderhill "aggressively moved toward" officers with a gun when he was shot about 3 p.m. at the Paradise Cove condominiums near the Village Commons Shopping Center.
Two 911 callers reportedly told dispatchers that McKinzie was trying to force his way into a first-floor condo at the complex, on the 1200 block of The Pointe Drive, according to a statement the police department issued Wednesday. Despite multiple warnings from officers to put his gun down, McKinzie refused to drop the weapon, it said.
A woman who identified herself as McKinzie's girlfriend denied to local television outlets Monday that McKinzie was breaking into the residence. She said it was her apartment and that McKinzie was experiencing a medical episode while he tried to get in. A message left at a telephone number listed for her was not immediately returned.
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Three officers placed on leave, but state law bars city from naming them
The city has placed three police officers on administrative leave with pay, per department policy for officer-involved shootings. It has not released their names.
The officers invoked their right to privacy under a 2018 state constitutional amendment modeled after California's Marsy's Law, a department spokesperson said. The amendment allows either victims of crime or their families to withhold their names from public reports.
Several law enforcement agencies have used the amendment to shield the identifies of officers involved in deadly use-of-force incidents, frequently stating that the officers were crime victims due to their safety being threatened.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the officer-involved shooting, and the West Palm Beach Police Department is investigating the events that led up to the shooting. City police said they are awaiting toxicology reports following an autopsy that the Palm Beach County Medical Examiner's Office performed Tuesday.
The Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office is also conducting an independent review of the shooting.
Third officer-involved shooting this year in Palm Beach County
Monday's incident marked the third fatal shooting involving West Palm Beach police in the past year. In May 2022, an off-duty city police officer shot and killed 33-year-old Romen Phelps during a confrontation in the theater at Dreyfoos School of the Arts.
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State Attorney Dave Aronberg decided this month that the officer involved in that incident used justified force and will not face criminal charges. Family and friends said Phelps, a Dreyfoos graduate, was not armed and was experiencing a mental-health crisis at the time of the shooting.
Several people gathered outside the police department Saturday, the one-year anniversary of Phelps' death, to demand that more information about the shooting be disclosed.
City police were also involved in the fatal shooting of a man in November at Windsor Avenue and 15th Street. Police did not disclose the man's name, saying that his family invoked its right to privacy.
A spokesperson for FDLE said the agency is still investigating the November use of force case.
Julius Whigham II is a criminal justice and public safety reporter for The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at jwhigham@pbpost.com and follow him on Twitter at @JuliusWhigham. Help support our work: Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: West Palm police ID John McKinzie Jr. as man shot, killed by officer
