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© St. Petersburg Times, published November 25, 2002
Shortly before dark today, a gunman will approach the back of the Hollywood home of Seminole Tribe attorney Jim Shore and raise a weapon toward the solitary figure beyond the sliding glass doors.
This time, though, no shots will ring out.
This gunman and his intended victim will be detectives from the Hollywood, Fla., Police Deparment re-enacting the shooting of Shore 10 months ago.
Their goal? To generate publicity about an investigation that has hit a dead end.
"We've spent hundreds of man-hours on this and interviewed dozens of persons, but we're at a standstill," said Hollywood police spokesman Lt. Tony Rode. "We believe someone knows something about this shooting. We hope this will stir someone's memory.
"We're hoping for any lead at all.'
Shore, 57, who is general counsel for the tribe and a key figure in a federal grand jury investigation into tribal corruption, survived the Jan. 9 attack.
As he rose from his sofa at about 10:30 that night, he was hit by three bullets fired through a sliding glass door leading to the pool of his Emerald Hills home.
One bullet ripped through Shore's arm below his elbow. A second slug crashed through an upper arm, shattering a bone near his shoulder. A third entered his chest, missing his heart by an inch.
Shore, blind since he was thrown through a windshield in a car accident when he was 25, heard the "pop-pop-pop" of the gunfire and felt the breath knocked from his body. At first, he thought he had been felled by an electrical shock.
When he felt blood, he doused the lights and called 911.
Following surgery and months of physical therapy, Shore has returned to work. He remains under 24-hour guard and lives at an undisclosed safehouse in Broward County.
No one has come forward with information about the attack, despite a $50,000 reward offered by the tribe.
Investigators think the shooting may have been a byproduct of the tumult the Seminole tribe experienced in 2001, a year in which popular Seminole Chairman James E. Billie was ousted as tribal leader and a period in which federal agents cast the shadow of a grand jury probe over the tribe.
"There have been major political problems in the organization, especially with Chief Billie being ousted," Rode said. "Does that have involvement in this shooting? It may. We can't say for sure."
"We are fairly certain that this was not a random act of violence."
Shore was vocal in his opposition to Billie and cooperated with FBI agents who began attending tribal council meetings last year.
Shore acted as legal adviser to the political faction that suspended Billie from his $312,000-a-year job in May 2001, took control of his newspaper, fired a number of his allies and dismantled several tribal businesses Billie had backed.
It was Shore who helped write lawsuits that accused Billie and his operations manager, Timothy Cox, of a stock scheme and payroll manipulation that cost the tribe millions.
And it was Shore who served as an intermediary with agents in the federal investigation that culminated in June with the indictments of Cox and two business partners. The U.S. government has accused the three men of conspiracy to embezzle $2.77-million from the tribe. The trial is scheduled to begin Dec. 2.
"In most investigations, you follow the money trail, and there's a lot of it in this organization," Rode said.
The tribe's five gambling casinos, which provide each of the 2,800 Seminole tribal members with a $3,000-a-month dividend, have been the target of organized crime elements. But police discount the theory that Shore's shooting might have been an attempted mob hit.
"This was not a professional hit," Rode said. "If it had been, Mr. Shore would have gotten two bullets in the back of his head.
"I'm more inclined to think someone was upset about things and got juiced up and did this."
-- Jeff Testerman can be reached at (813) 226-3422 or by e-mail at testerman@sptimes.com .