PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Port St. Lucie Police Chief Leo Niemczyk provided more details Thursday morning on what led to the double homicide in the Tropical East community earlier this week.
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Police say Mark Douglas Golden, 54, and David Walter Gasik, 75, were shot during a neighbor dispute by Paul Maraio, 62, who then turned the gun on himself and died from his injuries.
Maraio also held a neighbor, identified as 77-year-old Suzanne Rothermel, hostage for almost three hours after killing the two men.
Chief Niemczyk said the motive appears tied to a civil dispute with the Tropical East HOA board, where Golden served as treasurer and Gasik’s wife was the secretary. However, Niemczyk added that tensions originally stemmed from clashing political beliefs.
"The two are on opposite ends of the spectrum, so their views conflicted, so they were not fond of each other out of the gate early in the relationship, and I think that the HOA issue just further exasperated the situation," Niemczyk said.
According to police, the HOA served Maraio an eviction notice on Oct. 21.
"They had deemed him to be a disruptive resident and somebody that made other people uncomfortable," Niemczyk said.
Police had responded to three prior complaints involving Maraio before the shooting.
The first was on June 13, 2024, when Golden requested that Maraio to be trespassed from his home. The trespass was valid for six months.
"The second incident was on March 12 of 2025, between the suspect and the victim (Golden), regarding harassing, antagonizing comments," Niemczyk said. "And during that incident, allegedly, the suspect had made a gesture of allegedly slashing the throat."
Maraio was then issued another trespassing.
The most recent incident before the shooting was on Sept. 22, when Golden alleged that Maraio was using binoculars from the back of his home to view the victim and his partner inside their home. At this time, the second trespass was still in order.
"(Maraio) was known to be law enforcement friendly, liked dealing with law enforcement, and he always had a quick answer, always had an explanation for the behavior, and just nothing ever brought him to the point where he was considered an imminent threat to anybody," Niemczyk said. "Although I would think that (Golden) would certainly say that he felt that he was in fear enough so that he asked for him to be trespassed from his home."
Niemczyk said that Golden then attempted to get a risk protection order against Maraio, which the court denied due to no indication that the suspect had a firearm.
Lieutenant Daniel Herrington said that neighbors saw Maraio walking down in the neighborhood on the way to Golden's house the day of the shooting.
"(Maraio) walked right up to Mr. Golden's residence and shot him," Niemczyk said. "The one employee who was working on a neighboring house said he turned around and sees our suspect leaving with a handgun in his hand, just walking away, he then went to our second victim's home, Mr. Gasik and shocked him, and then proceeded to go across the street to our third victim's home, where he entered her home and then eventually took her as a hostage."
Police say Maraio shot Golden twice in the back inside his garage and Gasik once in the abdomen through a screen door with a semiautomatic pistol.
Afterward, he entered Rothermel’s home through her garage, telling her that “something bad had happened outside.” She initially believed he was fleeing from an incident, but later realized he was responsible.
Niemczyk said the department is working to determine if there was something they could have done to prevent this deadly incident.
"There's just no way for us to have known," Niemczyk said. "We don't have a crystal ball. We deal with neighbor disputes all the time. We deal with people who are a little odd all the time. We deal with people who are under stress all the time. And it's very difficult to know what people are truly capable of."
Police are still looking into how Maraio obtained the pistol used to kill the two men.
