A gay man in Florida has been gunned
down in his driveway in what one police officer described as an
“assassination,” reports WPBF, an ABC affiliate.
Thirty-year-old Mark Harriss was shot
more than 12 times in the driveway of his home in Delray Beach,
Florida. The killing occurred on Monday, about 8:30PM, as Harriss
returned home from a KFC restaurant.
Harriss' body was pumped with bullets
dispensed from a gun at close range, detectives said at a Thursday
news conference.
“Many shots were fired and it appears
it was at a close range,” said Sargent Russ Mager.
Police have not ruled out homophobia as
motivation for the killing. Harriss, who worked as a manager at the
Best Western hotel in Boca Raton, had a clean criminal record.
“I can't speculate to the actual
motive at this time,” Detective Troy Baer said. “But we are
considering every possibility.”
Claude Fox, director of the Florida
Public Health Institute and a friend of Harriss, described him as a
“really nice guy.” “I just can't imagine why anybody would be
shot this many times unless this was a crime of hatred or a crime of
passion.”