Video released by the Boynton Beach Police Department shows the moment an officer shot his ex-girlfriend before turning the gun on himself to commit suicide.
On October 12, Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Detective Michael DeMarco confronted his ex-girlfriend, Yuly Solano, while she was out walking her dog in the parking lot of the Inlet Harbor Club condominium complex near the Federal Highway in Boynton Beach, Florida.
In that video, DeMarco can be seen wearing his sheriff’s uniform as he steps out of his unmarked police car. Solano appears uninterested in talking to DeMarco as he accosts her and her dog, Coco.
As Solano attempts to extricate herself from the situation, DeMarco unholsters his service weapon and shoots Solano three times: once in the arm, twice in the chest. The aggrieved cop then places his handgun to his head.
The video skips out and a frame or two appears lost to the ether–or editing (though police insist they did not alter the footage)–and cuts back in with both Solano and DeMarco are lying on the ground; wounded and dead, respectively.
Right before the shooting, DeMarco allegedly told Solano, “You treat me worse than a dog,” a likely reference to Coco.
Later, during a November 8 hospital bed interview, Solano told investigators that she had broken up with the toxic detective a few weeks prior to their final parking lot encounter, “because he was being racist and very possessive of her.”
Solano currently has a GoFundMe campaign set up to help her pay the unexpected avalanche of medical bills. She has also threatened to sue the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office due to their alleged failure to care for or supervisor an employee with mental duress and emotional troubles,” according to her attorneys.
[image via screengrab; video courtesy Boynton Beach Police Department]
Follow Colin Kalmbacher on Twitter: @colinkalmbacher
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