North Lauderdale, Fla. — A decorated Army veteran was shot dead in broad daylight Tuesday in a Florida Walmart parking lot after a bitter dispute over a parking space, and the horrifying cell phone footage of the confrontation is now spreading like wildfire online.
Bart Diguglielmo, 62, a retired Staff Sergeant who served as a combat medic and nurse during Operation Desert Storm, was killed just before 12:30 p.m. at the Walmart Supercenter on West McNab Road in North Lauderdale.
Shocking video captured by a witness shows the deadly sequence unfold in seconds.A woman in a white shirt steps out of her vehicle holding a gun in one hand. She immediately begins arguing with Diguglielmo, who is wearing a gray shirt. The two point fingers at each other as they stand in what appears to be an otherwise empty parking space. At one point, Diguglielmo raises both hands in the air.
The woman keeps the gun trained on him as she moves around another vehicle. Diguglielmo follows her. A single gunshot rings out. The veteran collapses to the pavement.
Witnesses described the woman becoming hysterical after the shooting. One man told CBS Miami he heard her screaming incoherently as police arrived.
“He was a Christian man and a very good person and would not hurt anyone,” Diguglielmo’s sister told reporters. She described her brother, a New Jersey native from Hammonton, as a decorated veteran and a retired nurse who practiced for 30 years. He had an identical twin who passed away years earlier.
According to the Broward Sheriff’s Office, Diguglielmo and the unidentified woman got into a verbal altercation over a parking space. The woman remained at the scene, cooperated with detectives, and told them she acted in self-defense.
Deputies and North Lauderdale Fire Rescue rushed Diguglielmo to Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale, where he was pronounced dead.
Homicide detectives are still investigating the shooting. The case will be presented to the Broward County State Attorney’s Office to determine whether charges will be filed.
The video, which has been widely shared on social media, has sparked outrage over the senselessness of the confrontation, especially given that other parking spaces were reportedly available nearby.
Diguglielmo’s family is devastated. His sister called the loss “just heartbreaking.”
