The street was quiet. Only the sound of crickets chirping could be heard — until more than a dozen gunshots broke the silence.
The Broward Sheriff’s Office released home surveillance video Tuesday that includes the moment unidentified suspects arrived at a vacation rental home in Wilton Manors and shot and killed 44-year-old Arland Cata. The Sheriff’s Office said in a news release detectives are hoping to generate new leads.
Shortly before 11 p.m. Sept. 10, surveillance video from a home near the vacation rental in the 500 block of Northwest 28th Court recorded a car parked outside with the headlights on for a brief moment before they were turned off. Two figures could be seen running up to the outside of the rental home.
A first shot erupted, followed by a short pause and then at least 10 more in rapid succession. Four more shots could be heard in the video moments later, when the Sheriff’s Office said the suspects were firing from the white four-door sedan. They then fled in the car.
Wilton Manors Police officers arrived at the home and found Cata had been shot multiple times, the news release said. He was pronounced dead at Broward Health North. The Sheriff’s Office has not released additional details about the shooting.
Broward County court records and arrest affidavits pertaining to a retail-theft-ring investigation identified Cata as the victim who was killed in the Wilton Manors home that night. Cata was allegedly one of several people involved in the theft ring.
Authorities announced in October that 14 people are facing charges in connection with the ring that spanned the tri-county region in an investigation they called “Operation On the Fence.” The organization operated with people who acted as “boosters,” who allegedly stole large amounts of products from retail stores, then sold the products to the “fence,” who then resold them for a profit, Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office Detective Christopher Apple, one of the lead detectives on the case, said at a news conference in October announcing the charges.
Cata was allegedly one of the fences in the ring, Attorney General Ashley Moody’s office said in a news release at the time.
Officers knew Cata was staying at the Wilton Manors vacation rental in late June, according to the theft-ring suspects’ arrest affidavit. He had moved out of his Lauderdale Lakes apartment, where Burglary Apprehension Team detectives had executed a search warrant related to the theft investigation in February.
They starting surveilling the Wilton Manors home shortly after Cata moved there, from July until he was murdered, and saw people frequently coming and going with bags of allegedly stolen products, the arrest affidavit said.
Cata was found dead on the home’s living room floor when law enforcement went inside on Sept. 10, the theft suspects’ arrest affidavits said. Hundreds of items of over-the-counter merchandise, health and beauty supplies, electronics and other products were found inside, crowding the home so much that “there was barely enough room to move throughout the house,” the affidavit said.
Anyone with information on Cata’s murder is asked to call Detective Steven Novak at 954-321-4325, submit a tip through the SaferWatch App or anonymously contact Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-493-TIPS (8477), online at browardcrimestoppers.org or by dialing **TIPS (8477) from any cellphone.
