PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — A donor to former President Donald Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and then-Gov. Rick Scott died in an attempted murder-suicide last week, the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office confirmed Tuesday.
Steven Alembik, 72, of Boca Raton, shot a woman and then himself in a parking lot behind the BurgerFi restaurant west of Delray Beach, 7959 W Atlantic Ave., on the evening of Oct. 9.
The victim, who ran inside the restaurant after the shooting and is expected to survive, is not being identified because of Marsy's Law, sheriff's spokesman Teri Barbera said.
Over 20 years, he gave more than $200,000 in political donations, mainly to Republicans, the Miami Herald reported.
Alembik made racist remarks directed at former President Barack Obama in 2018.
DeSantis was running to replace Scott as governor. Scott, who was vying for the Senate, sent the $1,100 contribution from Alembik to charity after the remarks.
DeSantis' campaign and political action committees received contributions from Alembik. The PAC returned $11,000 but the campaign said $4,000 given separately had been spent in the primary and could not be refunded.
The governor's reelection campaign and a state political committee supporting that campaign, Friends of Ron DeSantis, received more than $5,000 from Alembik in 2021 and 2022, according to state records.
In 2017, Alembik moved a charity gala for his newly formed pro-Israel nonprofit group, Truth About Israel, to Mar-a-Lago after several charities canceled after his remarks about Trump's comments about a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
DeSantis spoke at the event. Trump didn't attend.
Amelmbik was co-founder and chief data Scientist at SMA Communications, a Boca Raton company that provides data for corporations, political campaigns, nonprofits and government agencies, according to his LinkedIn page.