http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/sfl...home-headlines
FORT LAUDERDALE – One Broward Sheriff's Office deputy was killed and another wounded while working with a kiddie porn task force trying to serve a search warrant Thursday morning. A suspect is in custody, police and Fire Rescue officials said.
Detective Todd Fatta was killed when a shot hit him in the heart-area, penetrating his bulletproof vest, Sheriff Ken Jenne said, his eyes tearing at a noon press conference.
Sgt. Angelo Cedeno, 36, was shot in the hand and shoulder and was undergoing surgery at North Broward Medical Center.
"Wish it didn't happen, but it did," Jenne said as he wiped at tears rolling down his face. "We forget sometimes how dangerous it is to them, to those around them."
The shot officers were rushed to nearby North Broward under a police escort. A section of Northeast 62nd Street and rush-hour Interstate 95 were shut down to traffic for the ambulances.
Stephen McInerny, division Fire Rescue chief for Fort Lauderdale, confirmed the death of 33-year-old Fatta, who was pronounced dead shortly after he was brought into the North Broward hospital.
Around 2 p.m., BSO spokeswoman Veda Coleman-Wright reported that Cedeno was listed in stable condition at the hospital.
The suspect, Kenneth Paul Wilk, 42, who is described as a gun enthusiast, is in custody but has not yet been charged with the murder of the deputy or the wounding of Cedeno, Jenne said. He was not injured.
The shootings occurred at a home at 1950 NE 57 St. at 8:50 a.m. during a raid by a special multi-force police task force. Ten to 15 officers were reported in the task force serving a search warrant as part of a kiddie porn investigation. The target reportedly was a suspected pedophile.
Officiers said Wilk was being investigation for "the sexual exploitation of children and related activities." It was part of an undercover investigation targeting child predators on America OnLine.
One neighbor said he heard six to eight shots fired. Another said she only heard five shots, got curious as to what was happening and walked around the corner to see police putting a hand-cuffed and leg-shackled man into a patrol car.
"He had an ugly smirk" on his face, said Arlene Marcus, "like he was proud of what he just did."
Sheriff Jenne said officers went to the house in force because they have had trouble there before.
Jenne said Wilk had been bragging lately that prior raids by police had not accomplished what they set out to do.
Wilk had said "We had not found all the porn," Jenne recalled.
Thursday morning officers knocked on the door. They tried to get Wilk to come outside to receive the warrant, but he refused, Jenne said. Shots were fired in the house by the suspect, who was armed with a high-powered weapon, Jenne said.
``Mr. Wilk had several weapons, several high-caliber weapons around the house,'' Jenne said.
One shot pierced Deputy Fatta's bullet-proof vest, ultimately killing him.
Other officers returned fire at Wilk. He was not injured, Jenne said. But the suspect gunman was quickly caught and taken into custody. No one else was in the house.
A new search warrant has been requested so police can go through the Wilk house room by room.
Police have been to the Wilk's home at least two times in the past two years. Last year, a child porn warrant was issued at the home in the residential neighborhood, at which point Wilk threatened officers and was arrested. Last month, another warrant was served and Wilk's roommate, registered sex offender Kelly Ray Jones, was arrested on charges of using the Internet to send illicit images of children to an undercover detective. He remains in federal custody.
Records indicate the home in the Colonial Ridge neighborhood just north of Holy Cross Hospital is valued around $300,000 and may be jointly owned by Wilk and Jones.
Before Thursday, the last Broward County deputy killed was 25-year-old Philip Billings, who was shot in April 2003 while working security at a Cadillac dealership in Pompano Beach.
Billings was wearing his uniform and a bulletproof vest while working the off-duty detail arranged through the sheriff's office.
The two suspects were later found dead in an apparent murder-suicide in Boca raton.
