Emergency 911 calls reveal a man, who was shot and killed by a Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office deputy, walked around a neighborhood in Boynton Beach with guns before walking to a nearby shopping plaza.
Benoit Pasteur, 38, pointed a rifle at a deputy in a shopping plaza at Hypoluxo Road and Military Trail near Boynton Beach at about 9:30 a.m. Thursday, according to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office. Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said deputies originally convinced the man to put one gun down before he grabbed another weapon Thursday.
“Bottom line is the deputy did everything he could to de-escalate the situation,” Bradshaw said. “You have a dangerous individual here that was threatening people in a violent manner out here on the street. Tried to carjack a lady with a young child inside the car. Very much a danger to the public.”
The 911 calls reveal details surrounding those moments as one woman said he pointed his gun into car windows while people waited in line at the drive-thru of a nearby Dunkin’. However, the five calls released in a public records request from WPTV show the first calls came from a neighborhood called Homes at Lawrence in Boynton Beach.
“Somebody was just at my house banging on the door with a gun,” said a caller, who was labeled as a Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office employee. “…They were banging on all doors and they broke my ring door camera.”
The employee said she wasn’t home, but her son was present when the event occurred. The tapes reveal he also called 911 and appeared to get in a car to warn other people about the man.
“There’s a man with a gun down there. Don’t drive there,” he said to a woman.
Another woman, who called 911 from the neighborhood, said she saw him point the guns at various vehicles as she left the development including law enforcement vehicles.
Homes at Lawrence is about half a mile away from the shopping plaza where the shooting occurred on Thursday.
Officials restricted access to the shopping plaza for hours with crime scene tape for most of Thursday. Yves Chery, who owns Chery’s Ice Cream Shop in the plaza, said he watched the shooting unfold as he watched in the corner of his store.
He said he backed away from the door as he saw deputies raise their guns and said one bullet went through the door. Chery said he thought he was shot because he felt a rush of heat in his leg, but he saw no blood.
“I’m happy to be alive today,” he said.
Chery said he plans to open the shop in two weeks but had to cancel an order of ice cream because of the shooting.
Pasteur has a criminal record mostly consisting of misdemeanor and traffic charges.
According to Palm Beach County court records, Pasteur was charged in 2020 with two felonies aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and throwing a deadly missile.
Affidavits tied to the case state Pasteur threw a brick through a sliding glass door at his uncle’s house because he wasn’t allowed inside. The charging documents go on to say that Pasteur admitted to throwing the brick and made a jerking motion while he was in handcuffs, resulting in a resisting without violence charge.
Pasteur was sentenced to 212 days in jail for those charges.
Bradshaw said the deputy would be placed on paid administrative leave, which is standard protocol when a law enforcement officer discharges his or her weapon.