Watch CBS News

1 Dead In Lauderhill Police-Involved Shooting

LAUDERHILL(CBS4)- Shots shattered the stillness of night in a quiet Lauderhill neighborhood. When it was over, 21-year-old Cedric Telasco laid dead on the sidewalk.

According to the Lauderhill Police department, a 911 call came in around 2 a.m. Tuesday from a caller who said a man was wielding a knife on the sidewalk.

"Pow, pow, pow, and then they stopped, then I hear the old man screamed 'no,'" his neighbor Marty Wright said.

But police are trying to figure if Telasco himself made that call.

"The cell phone the victim had on him, the deceased had on him, had been damaged by a bullet," Capt. Rick Rocco said. "So if we're going to try to recover that information we're going to have to forensically dig through the cell phone somehow to see if that was the cell phone that was used."

Police said Telasco had a history of mental illness. They said he was hospitalized at least twice before, and was on medication.

"Whatever circumstances led to his Baker Act, one of the things he was angry with was that, at least in the police report, was that he was angry at…I believe his mother for having Baker-Acted him some weeks prior to the January 2010 incident," Rocco said.

Police said the officers who responded likely had no idea of Telasco's mental state.

His friend Jared Taylor said Telasco wasn't confrontational.

"I've known him since the sixth grade," he said. "We graduated together, same class. I just talked to him last night. He was a very smart kid. He never got into any kind of issues. He was very caring. He was the kind who would do anything for anybody."

Telasco's family declined to comment on the shooting, but his neighbors wonder if police responded appropriately.

"They all have stun guns. Why didn't they stun him?," Wright said. "I mean, they Taser everyone else."

The police department is conducting full interviews with the police officers involved. They are off duty.

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.