Homestead Police Chief William Franklin ("Frank") Brantley, 38, was shot by a "mad and drunk" man he was attempting to arrest just after midnight on Sunday, March 16, 1952. He died 18 hours after being shot and became the second Homestead chief to be killed in the line duty (the first being chief or "town marshal" Charles Bryant in 1923).
Around 1:00PM on Saturday, March 15, Douglas David Carroll, 27, a foreman at a state prison camp in Florida City, was drinking heavily at Bob and Lou's bar in Homestead. Carroll ran into another prison camp employee, Edward Peeples, and the two went to Ted and Beaulah's bar on S. Krome Ave. Carroll spent the $10 he had on a "couple of dozen or so" beers and became incensed at a group of Mexicans who were drinking at the other end of the bar.
Carroll believed that the Mexicans were directing jeers and insults at him though he could not understand Spanish and did not know what they were saying. He was particularly incensed at Delfino Barboza, 28, of Raymondsville, TX, a Mexican farm worker, and claimed that Barboza made "motions" at him.
Carroll said Barboza "was a smart-aleck....He kept speaking the Spanish language and making all kinds of motions. He was making fun of me. I knew. We couldn't understand him." (Miami Herald, 3171952)
Finally Carroll told Peeples that he was going to "get even with the Mexican." Carroll decided to go to the prison camp and get weapons and ammunition so that he could return to the bar and "get even" with Barboza. Peeples accompanied Carroll to his Florida City home where Mrs. Carroll "was unable to persuade him to abandon his plan for revenge."
Upon arrival at the prison camp Carroll asked to be given the key to the medicine chest to get some aspirin for a headache but "instead of aspirin, he took the keys to the gun locker" and removed a .38 Colt, a .38 Smith-Wesson and a box of bullets.
Carroll and Peeples returned to the bar and Carroll sent Peoples into the bar to "call out" Barboza. However, Mrs. Beaulah Eveland, learning of Carroll's intention from Peeples, went outside to plead with Carroll not to cause trouble. But at that moment Barboza appeared (in Carroll's words, "came running out") at the door of the bar and Carroll, who had gotten out of the car, pushed the bar owner aside and "fired four shots into the Mexican's body." The shooting occurred at 12:12AM. (Donald Sullivan, a member of the Homestead Police Dept. in 1952 said in 1992 that newspaper reports that the shooting occurred after midnight were incorrect and that the shooting of Barboza and the Chief occurred around 11:00PM on Saturday night.)
After shooting Barboza, Carroll re-loaded and he and Peeples decided to flee the scene. They did not return to the bright yellow state road truck that they had driven to the bar since its color would make them too visible and since it was equipped with a governor limiting the speed to 40 miles per hour.
The two then fled across S.E. Second Ave. and attempted to steal a parked car but failed since no key was in the ignition. At this point Richard Biggers, a farmer and former sheriff's deputy, jumped in his car and started to pursue the two fugitives.
"But when he got up to them, Carroll pointed the gun at him and muttered, 'Don't move.'
'I didn't move, either,' said Biggers. 'That gun looked like a cannon.'" (Miami Herald, 3171952)
The two ran for six blocks before entering the back of a plant nursery at 105 S.E. Second Rd. The owner, Jack Sullivan, brother of a former Town Marshal, heard a noise in the nursery and saw two men enter the nursery. He called the police.
In the meantime Homestead police had been called about the shooting of Barboza. Chief Frank Brantley, who headed the four-man police department, was notified of the shooting and immediately drove to the police station with former state highway patrolman L.S. ("Doc") Platt (who was running for sheriff) and C.C. Armstrong of Hialeah, who had attended a meeting with him. The Chief picked up Kermit Gibbs, a Homestead fireman who was deputized as a policeman, and the four drove to Ted and Beaulah's bar and then followed the ambulance with the critically wounded Barboza to James Archer Smith Hospital. Brantley went inside to check on the condition of Barboza and then returned to the car.
The Chief then returned to his police car to search for Carroll who had been identified as the "shooter." The foursome was notified by police radio of the call from Jack Sullivan and went to investigate. When the police car arrived Jack Sullivan came outside his front door, got in the car and directed the Chief to the back of the house. Brantley turned the spotlight of the car on the dark yard but failed to spot the two fugitives since they were only eight feet from the car lying on the ground behind some large 5-gallon cans and the spotlight overshot them.
Chief Brantley then got out of his car and was met by a volley of gunfire. The spotlight evidently "rattled Carroll who leaped to his feet and fired a blaze of shots before taking to his heels." "The five shots were spaced in a straight line some four feet lengthwise, of the police car. The fatal bullet ricocheted to tear a gaping wound in Brantley's stomach as the police chief started to leave the car. Another grazed Platt's left arm..." (Redland District News, 3211952) The other three men (Sullivan had returned to his house) dropped to the floor not knowing that the Chief had been hit or that the gunman had fled. Brantley staggered to the back door of the house and cried, "Let me in, I'm hit...Take my gun, but don't turn on the light and don't leave.." He was placed on a bed and an ambulance was called. The chief, still conscious, said "I'm hit bad, I'm bleeding a lot and it's beginning to hurt...Tell them to hurry."
The Chief was still conscious when the ambulance arrived. Sullivan rode with him in the ambulance to James Archer Smith Hospital. An emergency operation was performed by Dr. Alan Logan but Chief Brantley died at 8:25AM on Monday, March 17 (18 hours after he was shot), at James Archer Smith Hospital. He arrived at the hospital conscious and was asked by R.B. Brown, a local pharmacist, if he wanted his wife called. The Chief said, "She's mighty nervous, Doc--is it that bad?" Brown told him, "It's pretty bad." Hospital attendants then took over and Brown and Sullivan went to Brantley's home to inform his wife of the shooting.
Peeples, who had not shot at anyone, apparently decided that he would end his participation in the "Saturday night drinking and shooting spree" and surrender. He threw his gun on the ground and crawled the eight feet to the car and attempted to open the door asking to be let inside. One of the men inside slammed the door shut on Peeples. He said that he was unarmed and "let's get away from here...that fellow's got a lot more cartridges." However, Carroll had fled the scene at this point.
A massive manhunt began at this point. The newspapers reported that the manhunt for Carroll was the greatest in South Dade since the "Cash kidnapping case" (in 1938 when 5 year old James Bailey ("Skeegie") Cash, Jr., was taken from his home in Princeton---and later found dead). Approximately 100 law enforcement officers from 17 agencies along with 200 civilians were involved in the 8 hour, all-night search for Carroll. The Homestead Leader-Enterprise reported that many of the 200 civilians were "self-appointed deputies". An airplane and four bloodhounds from Ft. Lauderdale were called in to aid in the search.
Carroll managed to avoid the manhunt through the night by hiding in the Everglades. He was almost caught at one point but was able to crawl under the lights of a police car and escape being spotted. During the night he hid in some trees but could hear police activity all night. In the morning "he got sober and he got scared" and so decided to surrender.
Carroll evidently realized that escape routes were blocked and was afraid that a "trigger-happy" member of the posse might shoot him. He walked back toward Homestead to the South Dade Farm Equipment shed and got a black man to drive him to the prison road camp (where he worked) about four miles southwest of Florida City. The black man agreed to drive him after Carroll gave him his watch as payment.
Around 8:00AM Carroll got out of the car at the road camp and approached two officers (Donald Sullivan of the Homestead Police Dept. and sheriff's deputy Jack Henderson) with his hands up pleading with them not to shoot him. The two officers removed the loaded revolver from his pants pocket and turned him over to Sheriff J.B. (Sonny) Henderson. Carroll was immediately taken to the county jail in Miami.
Carroll readily confessed to shooting Barboza and to firing at the police car but apparently did not realize that he had shot and killed Brantley (with whom he had a "speaking acquaintance"). Carroll "pursed his lips in a silent whistle, then hung his head, but showed no other sign of emotion" when told of Brantley's death by Sheriff Sonny Henderson.
Carroll claimed to have had nothing against Brantley but simply panicked when the spotlight was directed at him and began firing wildly. Carroll also made a statement that indicated that he had taken the gun to the bar to "talk to this guy" andor to "whip him." He conceded that he took the gun to shoot Barboza if he couldn't whip him. "I had the gun for protection and if I couldn't handle him one way, I would another."
Carroll also claimed that he didn't know who was in the car when he fired at Brantley and that he "didn't hear any one say anything."
