Broward fugitive killed man, kidnapped ex, cops say. He was caught in Dominican Republic
Two decades ago, a man shot and killed another man at his ex-girlfriend’s Broward apartment before kidnapping her at gunpoint, police say. He was recently nabbed in the Caribbean, the FBI announced Thursday.
On Dec. 2, 2002, Kareem Jobbar Lightbourne, then 26, entered 24-year-old Monifa Smith’s residence in the 4100 block of Northwest 21st Street in Lauderhill, according to the Miami Herald archives. Police say he gunned down 23-year-old Kirk Ennis before kidnapping Smith.
Lightbourne, now 47, drove around with Smith for two hours — until she escaped on State Road 7 and called police, according to the archives. He had lived with Smith until November 2002. Court records show Smith filed domestic violence cases against Lightbourne in December 2002 and March 2003.
Detained in the Dominican Republic
On the day of the murder, Lightbourne fled to the Turks and Caicos Islands in the Caribbean, according to the warrant obtained by the Miami Herald. Authorities recently detained Lightbourne in the Dominican Republic, the FBI said, though he was expelled to the U.S. due to immigration violations.
According to the warrant, police responded to the parking lot of a Lauderhill Winn-Dixie, where they found Smith in 2002. She told officers that she feared that her ex — Lightbourne — had shot her friend, whom she met at a nightclub.
Smith told police she was in the bathroom at around 4 a.m. when she heard three gunshots. When she opened the bathroom door, Lightbourne shoved a gun into her chest and accused her of sleeping with Ennis, the warrant states.
She said she tried to run away, but Lightbourne took a cloth out of his pocket and blindfolded her, according to the warrant. He placed her in a car, and she heard their 2-year-old son crying in the backseat.
Lightbourne had custody of the child for the weekend.
At one point into the hours-long drive, Smith said she asked Lightbourne what he did to Ennis. Lightbourne, the warrant alleges, replied that “at least [Smith] was neither dead nor shot.”
He eventually stopped the car, removed her blindfold and ordered her to get out, the warrant says. So Smith grabbed the child and ran off.
False account
But days later, Smith admitted to investigators that the account she gave wasn’t accurate, according to the warrant. She said Lightbourne told her to tell the fabricated story, and she did so out of fear.
In her new story, Smith said Lightbourne yanked her from the bathroom to the living room couch, the warrant states. He then dragged Ennis’ body by his arm to the front door. When police arrived to the apartment, they found the body in front of the front door.
The pair then entered a white Toyota Tercel. She wasn’t blindfolded — and their son wasn’t in the car at the time, Smith told investigators. At around 7 a.m., they headed to Lightbourne’s Boynton Beach home to pick up the 2 year old.
Lightbourne’s then-girlfriend confirmed that he had taken the child at around 7 a.m. that day, the warrant states.
According to Smith, Lightbourne switched to a Mitsubishi Mirage and drove to an area in northern Miami-Dade. He warned her that “his people” were watching her and would kill her and the toddler if she didn’t tell police the story he made up, the warrant says.
He then hopped out of the car, and Smith — still in fear — drove to the Winn-Dixie with the child and offered police the falsified account, the warrant states.
Arrested by BSO
Lightbourne, who was arrested Wednesday by the Broward Sheriff’s Office, is being held in the Broward Main Jail, records show. He’s charged with first-degree murder and armed kidnapping.
The search for Lightbourne had an odd twist in 2005 when police arrested a man they believed to be the fugitive at the funeral of the man’s grandmother, according to the Herald archives. Authorities handcuffed and questioned the man but “quickly learned it was not Kareem Lightbourne and released him.”
