Fort Lauderdale police release video of hotel shooting that injured officer
FORT LAUDERDALE -- Police released graphic, bodyworn camera video of a shootout that wounded an officer and left another man dead inside a Fort Lauderdale hotel last Thursday morning.
Fort Lauderdale police released three 58-second clips of the confrontation "to present the facts of the incident to you in an impartial manner," Major Patrick Hart of the Fort Lauderdale Police Criminal Investigations Division said in a recorded video statement.
The video clips being with officers in a sixth-floor hallway at the Holiday Inn Express on Southeast 17th Street. Video shows the officers wearing bulletproof helmets and armed to confront a man later identified as Karl Chludinsky of Margate.
Investigators said they responded to threats made to 911 from Chludinsky's room.
"Caller (is) stating he has guns and will start shooting at whoever is at his front door and is also rambling stating his wife is being raped," a dispatcher's voice said in an portion of a 911 call released with the police bodyworn camera video.
The videos show officers yell commands in the hallway near the door to Chludinsky's room.
"It's the police," an officer said in the video. "Come out with your hands up."
In the footage, a muffled voice responds and says he is going to open the door.
Six seconds later, the door opens.
Gunfire follows.
The videos recorded Officer Jack Dicristofalo tell fellow officers that, "I'm hit pretty good."
Two images released by police showed a bullet lodged in Officer Discristofalo's vest. He suffered multiple gunshot wounds, investigators said. While some of Discristofalo's wounds were serious they were not life-threatening, police said.
In a video statement, Major Hart described what happened and illustrated with a slowed version of footage from Officer Jack Dicristofalo's camera.
"The suspect opened the door with a phone in his left hand, a gun in his right," Hart said in the recorded statement. "The suspect brings the gun down toward the officers and Officer Dicristofalo with his department-issued rifle fired at the suspect. When officers continued to attempt to make entry, the suspect fired at the officers through the door."
Officers later found Chludinsky dead inside the hotel room, investigators said. He was alone, according to police.
Three patrol officers. Dicristofalo, Pascal France and Jose Lopez opened fire, according to investigators. All three officers are on routine, administrative leave per their department's policy, which also requires an internal review by Fort Lauderdale Police.
The Florida Division of Law Enforcement are also investigating.
