Memorial Date
12-30-1988
Officer Porfirio Soto, age 25, a police rookie, and Officer Charlotte Johnston were making an arrest on Boynton Beach shooting suspect Jackie Simpson when Simpson leaped at Officer Soto.
The two men grappled before Simpson pulled a .38 caliber revolver and twice shot Soto point blank in the chest. Soto's bulletproof vest deflected those shots, but as the officer raised his left arm in defense, Simpson fired at his unprotected side. He died an hour later.
Simpson was apprehended after a chase and later sentenced to 25 years, a light sentence for killing a police officer. On April 13, 1997, Jackie Simpson was found dead in his jail cell. An investigation disclosed that he hung himself.