Deadly Loxahatchee Shooting, Hours-Long Standoff at WPB Hotel End in Arrest — Suspect Held Without Bond

A 53-year-old man is being held without bond on a first-degree murder charge after a Friday afternoon shooting at a Loxahatchee residential community was followed by an hours-long SWAT standoff at a downtown West Palm Beach hotel.

Todd Wegrich was booked into the Palm Beach County jail at 4:22 a.m. Saturday. At his first court appearance, Circuit Judge Symonia S. Rowe ordered him held on no bond. A case conference is scheduled for October 5. A public defender was appointed, and the sheriff's office says additional charges are forthcoming.

The sequence of events began around 2:49 p.m. Friday, when West Palm Beach police received a tip from the Virginia Beach Police Department indicating a man connected to a Florida shooting had fled the scene and barricaded himself at The Ben hotel in downtown West Palm Beach.

At roughly the same time, Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office deputies responded to a reported shooting at the Arden master-planned community along Southern Boulevard in Loxahatchee. A woman, believed to be 43 years old, was found dead. Her identity has not been released under Marcy's Law. Wegrich had lived at a home in the gated Arden community since May, having previously resided in Ocala.

West Palm Beach officers confirmed Wegrich was inside The Ben hotel and contained in a room on the seventh floor. The area was secured and SWAT teams from both West Palm Beach PD and the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office responded. After several hours of unsuccessful negotiations, PBSO obtained an arrest warrant and SWAT attempted to breach the hotel room door — at which point Wegrich fired multiple rounds at officers.

Authorities then deployed gas into the room, conducted a secondary breach, and took the suspect into custody. No officers were injured.

West Palm Beach Police Chief Tony Araujo praised the response: "The safety of our residents, visitors, and hotel guests is our top priority... I am proud of the coordinated response by our officers and staff the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office."

Wegrich's only prior Palm Beach County criminal record is a 2013 battery charge with adjudication withheld — six months' probation and an eight-hour anger management course.

Source: WPBF 25 / West Palm Beach Police Department / Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office