Police still seek suspect in parking lot attack
Man in surveillance video sought as ‘person of interest’ in homicide.
City police have fielded “many” tips about fatal Sept. 11 attack in Palm Beach Gardens but they still need help in finding man.
PALM BEACH GARDENS — City police have fielded “many” tips about the fatal attack on Sept. 11 in a Palm Beach Gardens parking lot, spokesman Maj. Paul Rogers said Thursday.
But they still need help in identifying the man seen in surveillance-camera footage from that day at the Shoppes of Oakbrook plaza. Police would not specify how many tips they’d received regarding the attack.
They want to speak with the person seen in the footage, whom they have not called a suspect but, instead, have identified as a “person of interest.”
Police have released surveillance footage of a person seen in the Publix Super Market at the south end of the shopping center on U.S. 1 north of PGA Boulevard.
Authorities say Jupiter resident Bernard Leonard Fairman, 77, was left unconscious after a strong-arm robbery at about 8 p.m. in the parking lot outside the Stein Mart store. Fairman died Monday, the Palm Beach
County Medical Examiner’s Office said Thursday.
Officers described the man they want to question as a white male in his mid- to late 20s. He is between 5 feet, 10 inches and 6 feet tall and has a thin build, according to authorities said.
The images show the man wearing a distinctive T-shirt with the word “OUR” on the back, police said. The man also has a large tattoo on the outside of his left calf, although they haven’t commented on the specifics of that tattoo.
A manager at Stein Mart declined to speak with The Post on Thursday but said store officials are working with police.
Rogers said the department has extra officers patrolling the area.
Rogers called the attack “definitely one of the most horrendous and heinous crimes that we have seen.”
Fairman was attacked in the parking lot in what appeared to be a robbery. He was left unconscious, according to police records.
Two people who stepped in to help Fairman were injured as well, police records show. The woman and man, both in their 60s, appeared to have broken bones and bruises, respectively, according to police records.
They have declined to speak with the media.
Fairman’s death marks the second reported homicide this year in the city. Jovanni Alexander Sierra Brand, 13, was stabbed to death at a sleepover in March by 17-year-old Corey Johnson. The city had two confirmed homicides in 2017, according to a Palm Beach Post online database.
Anyone with information about the case is urged to contact the Palm Beach Gardens Police Department at 561-799-4445 or Crime Stoppers of Palm Beach County at 800-458-TIPS (8477). Callers to Crime Stoppers can be anonymous.