South Florida Sun Sentinel from Fort Lauderdale, Florida • 23

South Florida Sun-Sentinel Saturday, August 27, 2005 23 A Sun-Sentinelc com Hurricane Headquarters MIRAMAR Off-duty sheriff deputy in critical condition learn about American law By Akilah Johnson STAFF WRITER was riding with him, was unharmed. Jean Pierre, 47, who was off-duty at the time, was westbound on Miramar Boulevard about 7:30 p.m. Thursday when a gust of wind toppled the tree and its branches Hospital in Hollywood, where he underwent surgery Friday and remained in critical condition. Pierre, a road patrol deputy and 12-yearveteran, worked as a Pompano Beach police officer before the Sheriff's Office ii -a orowara snenrr aeputy i was in intensive care Friday af-, tec Hurricane Katrina toppled a viirir' tree onto the roof of his car and smashed through the windows of his Ford Focus, said sheriffs spokesman Jim Leljedal. Miramar firefighters used a chain saw to free Pierre and his child Schanna.

Pierre suffered serious head injures and was rushed to Memorial Regional took over the department. He was instrumental in developing the Sheriffs Office Haitian Citizens Academy last year. Since then, nearly 60 people have graduated from the academy, which provides Haitian immigrants with a venue to Akilah Johnson can be reached at or 954-356-4631. struck him in the head. His daughter, who Plantation Miami-Dade County I I Check for damage cost man his life Li fP.C.iu-:-- laaJ Sortal -'STAFF WRITER step outside was enough to kill Jerry Pace.

It was 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Vgrti'i, and Pace heard a limb crash yiri? onto the back of the 45-foot as-, single-wide he and Ray Harris ij y'! He opened the mobile "ism, home's door to check the dam-Vb -age. As he stepped out onto the voq- first wooden stair a large oQ branch snapped off another i tree bent by Hurricane ha. It struck Pace in the back of the head and pinned him face- down on the ground. jaib; Four neighbors at Pine Ijsfljo; Ridge Rentals in Plantation efi Liried to move the branch.

They even tried to use a ladder as a lever. Nothing moved the limb. 43 I jni X- STORM VICTIM: Members of the City of Miami Police Department remove the body of one of three confirmed fatalities in the area following Hurricane Katrina. Staff photo Joe Amon new his fishing license. "He loved to fish and he was good at it," Keith said.

The Pace family moved to Fort Lauderdale from Evans-ville, when Jerry was a boy, and he attended Strana-han High through the 10th grade. His two brothers and two half-brothers all were Marines, and Jerry also joined the service and fought in Vietnam "But he never was the same after that," Keith said. Jerry married and divorced, with a daughter, and a son, Brian Kircher, 3 1, of Boca Raton. Pace didnt always have regular work, although he had been a first mate on the charter fishing boat Flamingo near the Bahia Mar Hotel, Keith said. He moved into the mobile home park about 14 years ago, after his parents' home near the Fort Lauderdale-Holly-wood Airport was sold to make room for airport expansion.

Harris said he is on the road often as part of his job as a powerboat mechanic, so Pace took care of the mobile home and cooked. As was his father, Luther Ray Pace, Jerry Pace will be cremated and taken to sea by the Flamingo. The Neptune Society in Oakland Park is handling the arrangements. It.rrvPace, 56, died before rescuers arrived. 11 11 4.

0 Three dead after turn south High winds, capsized boat linked to fatalities Mike Gillman, a neighbor at re the 28-unit mobile home park ftb of Peters Road and Road 7. Gillman said iii 1: many residents are divorced rtf.i. men, "and we all look out for 'Alit-each other." ifi Pine Ridge Rentals manag-rp-v er Jessie Sutton said the trees, -rjy, which she could not identify, about 75 years old and S3imhavesurvivedotherstorms. "It was just one of those freak things," she said. Pace's brother, Keith Pace of Davie, had stopped by qi ar.pund noon Thursday, gave $20 for cigarettes and beer and reminded him to re missing persons.

Boat owners and fishermen showed up at Dinner Key marina throughout the day talking about the victims. Some said they knew mem, but only by first names. "He would stay inside the boat all day and then ride around here in his boat during the night," Jill Sparkes said of Howse. Florida City police also confirmed a drowning death late Friday, but details were not immediately available. Lincoln Howse, 67, apparently died from injuries suffered when a gust stronger than 90 miles per hour hit his boat and dragged it onto the island, police said.

"Homicide detectives believe he spent the night inside the boat, which was tossed around by the strong winds," said Herminia Salas-Jacobson, a Miami police spokeswoman. "The injuries seemed to be consistent with that." In a separate incident, divers spent hours searching for the "occupant or occupants" of a capsized houseboat that sank during the night after police discovered the body of a man near the boat, Salas-Jacobson said. Police did not release the identities of any Nick C. Sortal can be reached at or 954-385-7906. BY MC NELLY TORRES MIAMI BUREAU Three people died in Miami-Dade County as Hurricane Katrina made an unexpected turn south, authorities said.

In Miami, two boaters died outside Dinner Key Marina. One man's body was found inside a boat on Grove Key Island early Friday. Curtis Mc Nelly Torres can be reached at or 305-810-5004. -jus. FORT LAUDERDALE dania Beach Blaring horn signals Birthday plans turn into a time to grieve I deadly storm tragedy 4 By John Holland .4 3-TAFP WRITER LAUDERDALE She TTeard the horn blaring from by Andrew Ryan STAFF WRITER dania beach JamesPaolil-lo had plans Friday to celebrate his 79th under a large ficus tree and her neighbor was dead.

and almost everything in between. He drove a Greyhound bus for a stint when his girls were in high school. He liked the job, Cochran said, because it combined two of his hobbies: conversation and travel. In his later years, Paolillo became increasingly private. He spent a lot of time fishing from bridges and jetties with his dog, but always made it to Sunday dinner at the Mikes' house.

"He really was a wonderful man," Mikes said through tears. "Really, he was. It's a great loss." birthday with his daughter and grandchildren at an Italian restaurant. Instead, Paolillo's family spent the day heartbroken street before hitting another tree, according to the Broward Sheriffs Office. Paolillo died before paramedics arrived.

The dog also died. Instead of a birthday dinner, family recounted his long and full life. Born in the Bronx, N.Y., one of 10 brothers, Paolillo saw the world in the U.S. Marine Corps, and was honorably discharged in 1948. He married, moved to Fort Lauderdale and had two daughters.

"He was very outgoing," said daughter Christine Cochran, 47, of Madison Heights, Mich. "He loved to talk to people. He would talk to anybody." Paolillo spent most of his life as a salesman, selling tires, cars were out driving at 10 p.m. Thursday in Hurricane Katrina. "It doesn't make any sense," said daughter, Nanette Mikes, 49, of Cooper City.

"None of us can figure out what was west on Stirling Road." Paolillo had already eaten dinner, and he had told his grandson that he planned to ride out the hurricane at his mobile home in the Estates of Fort Lauderdale at Dania Beach. But his neighbor told the family he saw him drive away in his gold Honda Accord during a lull in the storm at about 9 p.m. An hour later, Paolillo hit a downed tree in the 10200 block of Stirling Road, backed up and drove the wrong way down the Paolillo and perplexed. They grieved the loss of the man they called "Pop Pop," and struggled with the question of why he and his dog, Taco, Staff Researcher Barbara Hijek contributed to this report I to help acquaintances needing a few dollars. He lived with his girlfriend and was extremely close with his sister and mother, who friends said lived nearby.

The mother and sister could not be reached for comment. "I know his mother and she was very proud of him and did a great job raising him," said Sam Delevoe, who said he taught Williams while working as a fourth-grade teacher years ago. "He was a good kid then, and he didn't change from what I could see." Neighbors seemed stunned at the randomness of the incident. They said Williams was returning home a few minutes ahead of his girlfriend, Christine Tarver, and waited so she could pull into their apartment's parking space first. Tarver arrived seconds after the tree crashed, witnesses said.

City workers had trimmed sections of the ficus hanging over public streets just a few days earlier, but stopped at the owner's property line, Berrios said. "It's just such a freak thing. My daughter parks there sometimes, and that could have been her," said neighbor Lisa Lewis, who lived in the same building as Williams. She saw the tree fall and watched Tarver pull up to find Williams buried. "That is a monster tree, and I wish somebody had taken it down a long time ago." Davie Jody Berrios hoped she was wrong, but the longer she heard the sound from a Cadil-'vjtju lac Escalade buried so deep in foliage that it could no longer oo'i.

b.seen, the more certain she ngu" Christopher Wil- wM, liams, 25, was crushed to death during the height of -ito Katrina while sit- outside his apartment, ap-i parently waiting for his girl- iB friend to come home. "It was so frustrating to sa j--fclknow he was trapped and not Jte able to do anything about jj 'it, Berrios said. "Just to keep hearing it, going on and on, it the worst noise you can imagine." Williams died at 715 River-j side Drive around 6 p.m. ('-thursday despite efforts by Fort Lauderdale Fire-Rescue workers. Armed with chain-jPaws and raincoats in hurri- cane-force winds, firefighters IolIo' attacked the tree so large Jfe that even on its side, tangles of reached 50 feet into the air.

They worked in waves -an fr about 1 0 minutes until they finally reachedWilliams. ri. -V But it was too late. He was pronounced dead at the scene ,0 and transported to the medical sty a examiner's office. By Friday afternoon, only the front of the white SUV could be seen, even though workers hadspent "Kbi'i hours cutting the ficus.

'a' Friends and neighbors de- Williams as a familiar 1. but quiet face in the neighborhood who played basketball with local kids and was quick Grandmother dies tending the horses she loved By Andrew Ryan STAFF WRITER davie Horses were one of Barbara DelNero's daily rituals: Each dawn and dusk for the past 31 the years, "I'm heartbroken that she is gone," said Barbara Collins, 36.Collins said, "At least it wasn't cancer or some prolonged illness. She was so independent, she would have hated people having to take care of her." She smiled, picking up a picture taken of her mother in June. "I just want people to know she was wonderful," Collins said. 8:37 p.m., Bamford said.

"She died taking care of something she thought was important," said her husband of 41 years, James DelNero, 74. On Thursday, she had the day off from her day job at Fred Hunter's Funeral Home. She made her regular trip to the ranch. After the dawn feeding, DelNero and her husband prepared for the coming storm. He asked her if they needed hurricane shutters.

"She said, 'I don't think so. It's only going to be a little tropical James DelNero remembered, his eyes watery. He looked at his daughter, and she seemed to finish his thought part of her essence. So Thursday evening with Hurricane Katrina bearing down, DelNero drove to the ranch to make sure the horses would be all right. As she was about to leave for the mile drive home at 6 p.m., the storm ripped a heavy branch off an Australian pine, police said.

The limb crashed down on top of her. "She cried out for help," said Davie Police spokesman Lt. Bill Bamford. Another worker at the ranch, Linda Baca, dragged the branch off DelNero and called 9 1 1 but it was too late. She was pronounced dead at Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood at Davie grandmother stopped by Pegasus Ranch on Griffin Road to feed, brush and talk to the animals.

DelNero, DelNero Staff researcher Barbara Hijek contributed to this report Staff writer Andrew Ryan can be reached at aryansun-sentineLcom or 954-385-7922. John Holland can be reached or at 954-385-7909. 69, managed the ranch, but it was more than a job, her family said; it was a.