The 1987 Palm Bay shootings

On April 23, 1987, William Bryan Cruse Jr., 59, killed six people and injured ten in a shooting at two shopping centers in the city. Two of the dead were Palm Bay police officers. The account below follows the Florida Supreme Court’s opinion of October 24, 1991, which reviewed his convictions.

The shootings

According to the court, Cruse loaded a semiautomatic assault rifle, a shotgun and a pistol into his car, with 180 rounds of ammunition, and drove toward the Palm Bay Center shopping area. On the way he stopped at a neighbor’s driveway and fired the shotgun at a 14-year-old boy playing basketball, John Rich IV, hitting him with birdshot, and fired at the boy’s father, brother and mother.

At the Publix at Palm Bay Center he shot and killed two shoppers who had just left the store, Nabil Al-Hameli and Emad Al-Tawakuly, and wounded their companion, Faisel Al-Mutairi. He fired at others along the walkway and in front of the K-Mart, and killed Ruth Green as she pulled her car into the driveway in front of Publix.

When sirens approached, he drove across the street to the Sabal Palm Square shopping center and began firing outside the Winn Dixie. Officer Ronald Grogan drove up, and Cruse reloaded and fired repeatedly into his car, killing him. Officer Gerald Johnson, who arrived just behind, was wounded in the leg, and Cruse found him in the parking lot and killed him. Cruse then went into the Winn Dixie and fired at people escaping through a rear door, wounding many and killing Lester Watson.

He took a store employee, Robin Brown, hostage in the women’s restroom and sent another woman out to tell police to turn off the lights. He tried to negotiate a way out of Brevard County. Several hours later he let Brown go. Police fired tear gas and stun grenades into the store, and Cruse came out and was arrested.

The trial and the appeal

The trial was moved to Polk County. The jury convicted Cruse of six counts of first-degree murder, twenty-two counts of attempted first-degree murder, two of attempted second-degree murder, and one each of false imprisonment and kidnapping, and recommended death on all six murder counts. The judge imposed death for the murders of Officers Grogan and Johnson and consecutive life sentences for the other four.

Cruse’s defense was insanity. On appeal, the court noted that five of the six experts who testified said his paranoid delusions concerned his sexuality, not fear of physical harm, and it rejected his claims. On October 24, 1991, the Florida Supreme Court affirmed the convictions and the death sentences. Justice Barkett dissented, arguing for a new trial and against the death sentences.

Further Reading

• Florida: A Short History by Michael Gannon