Man shot to death in Boynton identified

BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. - A wild scene played out in Palm Beach County that left one man dead and a suspect in custody.

It started with multiple shots fired in Boynton Beach, continued with a high-speed getaway and ended with a police-involved shooting.

Police say 54-year-old William Dabbs of Delray Beach is the shooter, and 41-year-old Lawrence Modena, Jr., of Deerfield Beach is the victim. However, it's still unclear what drove Dabbs to allegedly shoot Modena, Jr. in a strip mall parking lot on the 1500 block of SW 8th Street in Boynton Beach.

Chopper 5 got exclusive video of the suspect at the center of this shooting being put on a gurney after he was taken down by police in Lantana.

Randy Andrews, a resident, says he knew something wasn't right when he "saw an ambulance racing on Hypoluxo West followed by an officer."

It all started in the back parking lot of the SportClips salon, where police say the suspect Dabbs shot Modena, Jr.

The whole scene gave hairdresser Maggie DaSilva quite a scare. She says, "We walked out back and saw the guy being pulled out of the car by the paramedics. He had blood coming out of the side of him."

Michael Vesic claims he saw what was going on and called for help.

"I heard the shots, five or six rounds, while I was unloading the truck at Home Depot," Vesic said. "So I ran after the suspect and couldn't get his tag number and I called 911."

Police say Dabbs raced north on I-95 in a white Chevy van and ended up at Hypoluxo Boulevard and Federal Highway in Lantana.

"The vehicle was traveling at very high rates of speed, upwards of 100 mph, and did crash into two other vehicles," said Boynton Beach Police Department spokesperson Stephanie Slater.

Police say those drivers are okay. But when an officer approached Dabbs in Lantana, the officer allegedly fired his service weapon.

Now, Dabbs is in the hospital and Modena, Jr. died from the original incident.

But there may be another victim to this.

The license plate number on the Chevy van that Dabbs was driving was traced back to the unsuspecting store owner of Fan and Lighting World.

Marianne Ungerland says, "[The license plate] was stolen off of our van last night. That's how we found out...we put a report in."

Dabbs is in stable condition at Delray Medical Center. Police say he faces a slew of charges including homicide and aggravated assault of a police officer.