OAKLAND PARK, Fla. — In an emergency dispatch recording released on Thursday, a man said he needed law enforcement and paramedics to help “a bleeding suspect” after a “stabbing” at a “foster home.
The man told the 911 dispatcher that the stabber was out of the house at 5464 NE 3 Ave., in Oakland Park, according to the edited recording.
“I had to break it up,” the man told the dispatcher, who was interacting with 14-year-old Jordan Dowdy when he said, “Talk to me ... Are you with me?”
And he said, “Talk to me, Jordan!”
Broward County Sheriff’s Office deputies and fire rescue personnel responded to the house and took Jordan to the hospital, where deputies said he died. Deputies arrested 16-year-old Ruben Whitworth, who faces a first-degree murder charge.
“Jordan, I love you,” a grieving writer wrote with paint on the floor outside the home. The message, which remained on Thursday, was near photographs of Jordan and candles after a Wednesday night vigil.
“He had a big heart, he loved everybody that he came in contact with, he loved football,” Simpson said before the vigil, while holding pictures of Jordan wearing a football team’s uniform.
A neighbor’s video shows Jordan raising funds for his football team. Simpson and the home’s neighbors said there were warning signs.
Simpson said Jordan told him he was afraid of Ruben, his roommate at the foster home.
“The kid kept threatening him,” Simpson said. “I expressed to multiple people who were here within the home with him.”
Broward County property records list a man with a Pompano Beach mailing address as the owner of the three-bedroom two-bathroom house in the North Andrews Gardens neighborhood since 2017.
Concerned neighbors said One Hope United, a nonprofit organization that provides foster care services in Florida, was operating the home for boys, which had originally been planned to be for girls.
Natalie Bauer Luce, a spokeswoman for One Hope United, released a statement on Thursday afternoon confirming the connection. Local 10 News could not reach the house’s property owner for comment.
Related stories
- Slain teenage boy’s father was in prison when he died while in foster care in Broward, records show
- Mother of slain 14-year-old boy says murder suspect ‘kept threatening him’ before stabbing in Broward
- Teen’s fatal stabbing at Oakland Park home leads to questions about who lives there
- Teen faces murder charge in Broward juvenile court after 14-year-old boy dies
Local 10 News Assignment Editor Carson Merlo contributed to this report.
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