2 men in custody after shooting at crowded mall in southern Florida that left 1 dead

Monday, December 25th 2006, 6:33 am

By: News On 6

BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. (AP) _ Two men were in custody Monday after a shooting at a crowded mall that left one man dead and sent hundreds of Christmas shoppers running for cover, police said.

Jesse Cesar, 21, of Lake Worth, was charged with first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder of a police officer.

Cesar fatally shot Berno Charlemond, 23, at the Boynton Beach Mall, north of Miami, on Sunday afternoon, Police Lt. Jeffrey Katz said. Cesar fled, firing at police as he led them on a chase through the mall, Katz said. Officers did not return fire and no one else was injured.

SWAT team members arrested Cesar after he barricaded himself in part of a Dillard's store and refused to surrender when officers contacted him through the public address system, Katz said.

Fregens Daniel, 20, of Boynton Beach, also was arrested and was charged with acting as principal accessory in the case, Katz said.

Bond has not yet been set for Cesar and Daniel, and it was not immediately known whether either had an attorney.

Police did not disclose the number of shots fired. A motive for the shooting has not been determined, but Katz said Charlemond, of Boynton Beach, was arrested a month ago at the same mall for carrying a concealed weapon.

``We're still ironing out the details of the case, piecing things together,'' he said.

Agate Alphonse said she was on her way to a shoe store when she said she passed a group of 10 to 15 people punching and grabbing each other. A few moments later, shots rang out.

``Some people got down. Some people ran,'' said Alphonse, who crouched on the ground with other shoppers and later ran out of the mall.

A mall spokesman, Sam Yates, said the shooting occurred outside of a store. The mall was evacuated and remained closed the rest of the day.

Elsewhere, two shootings occurred at malls in North Carolina over the weekend.

A man was charged with attempted murder Sunday after a shooting a day earlier at a Greensboro mall packed with shoppers. One man was critically wounded by gunfire at the Four Seasons Town Centre on Saturday.

And one man was slightly wounded at Charlotte's Eastland Mall on Friday evening when an argument between two groups of men ended with one firing through glass entrance doors. No arrests were made.