FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Christian Julian Pope didn’t even get to celebrate his 21st birthday in May, and he was already accused of killing someone and trying to kill two others in Broward County.
Hollywood police officers arrested Pope, 20, on Tuesday and Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies were holding him at the main jail on Wednesday in Fort Lauderdale.
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According to Detective Carl LeBlanc, Pope killed a man on May 16, 2023, at 2831 Taylor St., during an ambush to steal marijuana, cocaine, and narcotics, records show.
“Pope’s DNA was found on the guns,” LeBlanc wrote in his April 10 request for an arrest warrant.
The slain man’s two friends survived the ambush.
“The suspects in this case hired the victims ... under the pretense of purchasing narcotics,” LeBlanc wrote in the warrant. “When the suspects approached the vehicle with firearms their intentions now appeared to be a robbery.”
Court records show Pope was born in Miami. He was 18 years old and living in Hollywood when he was arrested for theft, battery, and marijuana possession.
Pope was 19 years old when he was arrested for grand theft auto on April 16, 2022, by Pembroke Pines police, and on Sept. 26, 2022, by Hollywood police.
Pope was getting in trouble so often that his probation sentences in Broward overlapped.
Circuit Judge Kenneth A. Gottlieb sentenced him to probation from May 16, 2023, to Dec. 7. Circuit Judge Edward Harold Merrigan Jr. sentenced him to probation from July 24, 2023, to Nov. 17.
Last year, in August, Hollywood police officers arrested Pope for possession of a weapon by a convicted felon and he faced two counts of probation violations.
According to court records, Broward County Circuit Judge Michael Lynn granted a search warrant to obtain Pope’s DNA, and Le Blanc met with Pope on Dec. 1 at the main jail.
“Pope was being held for an unrelated charge. I obtained buccal swabs,” Le Blanc wrote adding that he sent them to the Broward Sheriff’s Office lab on Dec. 17 to compare it with evidence.
According to court records, Hollywood detectives also have data from a stolen phone used to lure the victims that includes photos of Pope and his friends holding the weapons.
On Thursday, Pope was at the center of a capital case. The man who died suffered gunshot wounds to the head and back, records show.
Popw was facing charges of first-degree murder with a firearm and two counts of first-degree attempted murder.
Detectives asked anyone with information about this or other cases to call Broward County Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477.
Local 10 News Assignment Desk Editor Kelly Davis contributed to this report.