Out for the night with a friend in Fort Lauderdale’s trendy Himmarshee district, a woman literally ducked a bullet after arguing with an old boyfriend she bumped into, and now his cousin is charged with the shooting, police said.
Jeff William Saint Gerard, 35, was cruising in Thierry Bastien’s black BMW about 5:15 a.m. May 21 when Bastien happened upon his ex-girlfriend who was with another man, investigators said.
According to the arrest report, Bastien told her he missed her but the conversation escalated into an argument involving all four people. It ended when the woman walked back to her car with the other man where they continued to talk.
She noticed the BMW slowly driving by several times. When it stopped, Bastien stayed in the driver’s seat but his cousin, Saint Gerard, got out of the passenger side, resumed arguing with the woman then pulled out a gun and fired a shot in her direction, the report stated.
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She and her friend ran off in different directions while Saint Gerard got back in the BMW and drove off, police said.
Surveillance video from security cameras in local bars and restaurants showed the BMW circling the district for about an hour before speeding away after the shooting.
A license plate reader in the area recorded the BMW’s tag and detectives said they traced the car’s ownership to Bastien.
The woman was taken to Broward Health Medical Center for treatment of her wound.
She was able to help detectives identify Bastien and Saint Gerard from their Instagram accounts. She also picked their pictures out of photographic line-ups, police said.
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Bastien was charged in July with being an accessory after the fact and was released on bond.
Saint Gerard was arrested Tuesday and charged with attempted murder with a firearm. He remained in the Broward County Jail on a $100,000 bond, records showed.
