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Atlantis officer shoots suspect during arrest attempt

Victim lunged for policeman's gun, officials say

staff report

November 13, 2005

An Atlantis police officer shot and wounded a man early Saturday morning when the man tried to grab the officer's gun, authorities said.

Salvadore Maldonado Lara, 25, was shot once and treated at Delray Medical Center, Paul Miller, Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office spokesman, said.

The Sheriff's Office is conducting the shooting investigation for the 13-member Atlantis department.

Miller gave this account:

Officer Richard Sluman was patrolling along Congress Avenue at 2:50 a.m. when he saw a white Chevy pickup truck pulled to the side of the road across from JFK Medical Center. Once another officer arrived, Sluman approached the truck, saw beer bottles inside and asked the three men inside to step out of the vehicle.

When he searched the truck, he found a gun inside.

Sluman ordered the men to their knees, and he and the other officer began handcuffing them.

As Lara was being handcuffed, he lunged at Sluman, grabbing his gun. Sluman pulled away, Lara lunged at him again and Sluman fired one shot.

Miller said he did not know where Lara was hit.

He said Lara would be charged with battery on a law enforcement officer, with an additional charge involving stealing a law enforcement officer's gun.

Palm Springs police also could be filing charges involving the men in the truck, Miller said.

At about 12:45 a.m. Saturday, at least three men who had been thrown out of a nightclub near Congress Avenue and Forest Hill Boulevard threatened a man with a gun and left in a white Chevy pickup truck.

Numbers from the partial plate number in that incident match the plate number on the truck in Atlantis, Miller said.

Miller said Lara entered the United States from Mexico about three weeks ago without documents, and has been staying with a relative in Lantana. Immigration authorities will be notified, Miller said.