1 Dead In Shooting At Sugar Cane Coop: Palm Beach Sheriff

BELLE GLADE, FL — An employee was shot to death at the Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida in Belle Glade Friday afternoon, Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office tweeted.

Around 12:30 p.m., the sheriff’s office said that deputies responded to a shooting at the cooperative, which is located at 1500 George Wedgworth Way.

Deputies found an employee dead at the entrance of the building, the sheriff’s office said.

The shooter was still armed with a handgun when deputies arrested him. The shooting seems to have been a planned attack, the sheriff’s office said. An investigation is ongoing.

“(The) Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida is a vertically integrated agricultural enterprise that brings sugar from cane fields in South Florida to dinner tables, restaurants and food manufacturing facilities throughout America and around the globe,” according to the cooperative’s website.

The cooperative is comprised of 44 members farms ranging from small- to medium-sized businesses. They grow sugarcane on about 70,000 acres in the Everglades Agricultural Area. The cooperative said its members produce, collectively, more than 350,000 tons of raw sugar each year.