Dead suspect identified, officer released from hospital after shooting at Fort Lauderdale hotel

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Three Fort Lauderdale police officers investigating a possible homicide exchanged gunfire with the suspect in a hotel room near Port Everglades Thursday.

When it was over, one officer was wounded by gunfire, the suspect was dead, and there was no sign of the homicide that drew police to the Holiday Inn Express Fort Lauderdale Cruise Airport in the first place.

Fort Lauderdale Police identified the man who died Thursday as Karl Chludinsky, 46, of Margate.

The investigation halted traffic east of U.S. 1 on Southeast 17th Street to the causeway bridge for most of Thursday morning. The north entrance to Port Everglades was sealed off for most of that time, but with two other entrances and only one cruise ship, port activity was largely unaffected. There also appeared to be minimal impact on a Call of Duty tournament taking place at the Broward Convention Center, which drew competitors from across the country, some of whom were staying at the Holiday Inn Express.

Fort Lauderdale Police Chief Bill Schultz provided few details about the fatal encounter at a news conference late Thursday morning. He said the suspect called police at 7:39 a.m. to report that he had killed someone in his room, but he did not cooperate when police arrived to question him.

After the shooting, the suspect barricaded himself in the room and the officers withdrew, Schultz said. A SWAT team re-entered the room and found the suspect alone and dead.

The wounded officer was taken to Broward Health Medical Center for treatment of an injury that was not considered life-threatening. Casey Liening, a spokesperson for the police department, said about 5 p.m. that the officer had been released from the hospital and is expected to recover.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement will handle the investigation, which is standard for police-involved shootings. The three officers who fired their weapons will be placed on administrative leave, which also is standard procedure.

Immediately after the gunfire, guests at the hotel described the chaos.

“We’re moving down here. We were waking up to have breakfast at the hotel, and staff pushed everyone into an event room,” said hotel guest Alexis Boettcher, of Cleveland Ohio. “I came downstairs. They told me there was an active shooter and I couldn’t go back in the building.”

Bullet holes could be seen clearly in some windows above the pool deck.

Boettcher and her boyfriend, Luis Castanedo, had noticed streams of police cars arriving when they got up Thursday morning. He went down to get breakfast while she went outside to see what was going on. Then Castanedo heard a gunshot and the couple was separated.

Castanedo was put into a conference room with about 15 other hotel guests, including families with children, he said, the lights shut off. Hotel staff told them there was an active shooter. Quietly, they went on their phones to try to find out what was going on.

The two finally reunited outside the hotel later Thursday morning.

Castanedo said hotel staff seemed to know what they were doing, and it was clearly a drill they had practiced before.

Alejandro Morales, 23, had just arrived in Fort Lauderdale from New Orleans Thursday morning for the Call of Duty tournament, which would get underway at 12:30 p.m., when his Uber got stuck and he saw the caution tape and dozens of police cars out front.

“I was going to leave my bag and go to the event but I don’t think that’s going to happen,” Morales said.

Six Spring Breakers visiting from Boston said they were two doors down from the room where the situation unfolded.

Luke Loffler was still in his swim trunks and towel as he stood in the parking lot across the street. He said he had gone down to use the hotel pool and was in the elevator when the doors opened on six police officers with guns telling him to get downstairs.

His friends, meanwhile, were back in the room, where Bryce Winter and Nick Morrissey said they heard somewhere around 15 shots.

Pro-Call of Duty players continued to arrive as the morning went on, unsure what to do. Some had traveled from as far as London for the event and are professional players with large followings online.

Two players, Sam Zanchelli and Austin Kalchbrenner, had arrived at the hotel Wednesday night from New York and Panama City, respectively, said they were awakened by gunfire near their room on the sixth floor. Police officers then knocked on the door, told them to grab whatever they had and escorted them outside of the hotel, where they gave witness statements.

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(Sun Sentinel photojournalist Joe Cavaretta contributed to this report.)