PEMBROKE PINES, Fla. -- More than 200 law enforcement officers took to the skies and streets Tuesday in a massive dragnet after a border protection agent was shot and killed in front of his daughter.
Agent Donald Pettit, 52, was shot in a parking lot outside a Pembroke Pines post office building in an argument with another man. Police didn't disclose the exact motive for the killing, but said there had been an argument in the parking lot between Pettit and the other man. Authorities think the shooter fled in a newer model, metallic green Chrysler 300.
"We're not going anywhere until this ends," said Deputy Pembroke Pines Police Chief Mike Segarra at a news conference late Tuesday night. "I want this guy to know we're going to find him. He's not going to hide."
Pettit, a longtime federal employee, began working as an internal affairs investigator for U.S. Customs and Border Protection earlier this year. Pettit is married with two children. Segarra said he was a 20-year Army veteran and spent 15 years as an investigator with the Food and Drug Administration before joining border protection in January.
Officers from local, state and federal law enforcement agencies wore bullet-proof vests and carried assault rifles as they scoured the tri-county area in an intense search that included at least two Blackhawk helicopters transporting men in full military fatigues.
Police had identified no suspect as of late Tuesday night, but authorities announced a $175,000 reward as an incentive for more leads.
The trouble started sometime before 9 a.m. in the parking lot of the South Florida Processing and Distribution Center at Pines Boulevard and Dykes Road. There, police say Pettit and another man got into the argument.
"One shot was fired," Segarra said. "The officer was struck in the head."
Police say the suspect hopped into the getaway vehicle and sped off east on Pines Boulevard. They described him as a man in his 50s, about 6 feet tall, medium to heavy build with gray or white, bushy hair and sagging cheeks.
When police arrived at the post office, they found Pettit bleeding on the ground next to his own Chrysler 300. He was rushed to Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, where he died. Police say Pettit was with his daughter, who is 12 or in her early teens.
Pettit's family in Pembroke Pines couldn't be reached Tuesday, and reporters were turned away by security at the Encantada neighborhood where they lived.
"It is tragic," said his ex-wife in Kentucky, Patsy Skelley. "It is horrible. I feel bad for the whole family."
Skelley said she received a call from his sister early Tuesday.
"She just said he got shot in the head," said Skelley, in a phone interview. "I'm shocked, I don't really know what to say."
Skelley said the couple divorced 18 years ago, but she kept regular contact with his family. She said that Pettit's mother died around this time last year, making Tuesday's loss even harder for the family.
At Memorial Hospital, a steady trickle of sullen officers walked through the emergency room where the agent was taken Tuesday morning.
Hundreds of officers gathered throughout the day at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection building, just a few blocks from the post office. Officers checked nearby businesses for possible surveillance footage that could aid in their search. Police also investigated Chrysler 300s spotted throughout the county.
Police believe there are witnesses who can help them catch the suspect.
"Somebody had to have seen something," said Carlos Baixauli, spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call Pembroke Pines Police at 954-431-2225 or Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477.
Segarra called the crime a "sickening thing," but held out hope.
"We're gonna find this guy," he said. "There's no doubt in my mind."
Staff Writers Alexia Campbell, Joel Marino and Staff Researcher Barbara Hijek contributed to this report.
Brian Haas can be reached at or 954-356-4597.
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