Suspect in shooting arrested in Miami

Investigators say the suspect is wanted in connection with a man's killing in a liquor store holdup.

By Times staff and wire reports
© St. Petersburg Times
published March 12, 2003

MIAMI -- A man wanted for questioning in a fatal shooting outside a Tampa liquor store was arrested Tuesday after he and a woman led police on a chase.

Police did not release the man's name, but said he may be connected to the March 1 killing of Arnold "Arnie" Klotsch, who was fatally shot as he tried to stop two men who robbed an Albertsons liquor store on Hillsborough Avenue in Town 'N Country.

When the men ran out of the liquor store, Klotsch followed in his car. One of the men fired two shots, killing Klotsch.

Hillsborough detectives got a tip that a Mitsubishi may have been used as a getaway car. Sheriff's officials said deputies also had a partial license plate number.

Detectives tracked the car to a home in the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Miramar, and alerted police there that one of the suspects was using the car, sheriff's officials said. Miramar police staked out the house early Tuesday.

As the man left with the woman around 12:40 p.m., an unmarked Miramar police car trailed it and called for backup, police spokesman Bill Roberston said. But the officer lost track of the car before backup arrived, he added.

The car then went into Miami-Dade County, where the chase began around 1:35 p.m., said Miami-Dade police Detective Robert Williams.

News helicopter video showed the car hitting other vehicles as it wove through traffic and drove along sidewalks. No one was injured, Williams said.

When the car went into a parking lot near Miami-Dade Community College's north campus, it ran over several cement blocks in parking spaces and came to a stop.

Officers leapt from several marked and unmarked police cars, pulled their guns and swarmed the pair.

They dragged the male driver out of the car, threw him to the ground and handcuffed him.

The female passenger got out of the car at gunpoint and was also handcuffed. She was not a suspect in the Tampa case, Roberston said.

Their names or information on charges were not immediately released. The man was being questioned by Hillsborough detectives, sheriff's officials said.

Klotsch, 45, lived in Town 'N Country. He had a wife and four children. He was waiting for his wife to leave work at the neighboring Albertsons grocery store around 10 p.m. when he saw the robbery suspects leaving the liquor store.

The other suspect had not been found Tuesday.

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