Stranded motorist kills Florida trooper without warning

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A stranded motorist walked toward a Florida Highway Patrol trooper and suddenly shot him, a fatal attack that led to an Interstate 95 shootout with a police officer that also left the gunman dead, an investigation released Friday concluded.

Trooper Joseph Bullock had been helping Franklin Reed III for an hour Feb. 5 and had returned to his patrol car to do paperwork when Reed, after a dispute with a tow truck driver over payment, walked over and shot him in the head, Martin County Sheriff William Snyder told a press conference.

Snyder called Bullock’s slaying “an unprovoked, premeditated murder.”

Snyder said Bullock’s interactions with Reed, 30, had been routine. About 9:15 a.m., Bullock spotted Reed’s SUV parked at a 90-degree angle on the northbound side of a tree-lined swale that separates the lanes of I-95 near Palm City, about 40 miles north of Palm Beach.

A soundless dashcam video taken from Bullock’s patrol car shows the 42-year-old trooper stop near Reed, walk up and have a conversation with him that lasts minutes. Reed apparently told Bullock he thought he could get the SUV running, so Bullock drove away.

About an hour later, a motorist told 911 that Reed’s SUV appeared to have been in a crash. Bullock returned and found the SUV farther down in the swale. He called for a tow truck to assist Reed, who had no criminal record and a concealed weapons permit.

Bullock remained with Reed for the next hour without apparent incident before the tow truck arrived. As the tow truck driver hooked up Reed’s SUV, Bullock went back to his patrol car and sat in the driver’s seat. The tow truck driver told detectives that Reed became upset because he didn’t have enough money, but he didn’t think there was any danger as he followed as Reed walked toward Bullock.

Reed pulled a gun and shot Bullock and then turned his gun on the tow truck driver, but it jammed, Snyder said.