Nearly five months after a T.G.I. Friday's cook was stabbed and killed in Pembroke Pines, police say they've found his killer.
Luke Roger Chamberlain, 32, was arrested Thursday night and charged with premeditated murder in the April 14 slaying of 53-year-old Antoine Gracius, Pembroke Pines Police Captain Dan Rakofsky said.
Gracius was heading home from his shift at the restaurant at Pines Boulevard and University Drive around 1:30 a.m. when the deadly encounter happened, police said.
Surveillance cameras from the restaurant captured Gracius leaving out the front doors, then returning moments later holding his stomach and banging on the glass for help.
His blood drenched hands left stains on the door as he stumbled away and eventually collapsed in the parking lot.
A witness originally thought Gracius was the victim of a hit and run after he saw a black vehicle speed away from the scene, but it didn't take long to figure out Gracius had been stabbed, police said. He later died from his injuries.
At the time of the murder, police said they believe Gracius was targeted for his gold necklace.
Gracius, who moved to the U.S. from Haiti in 2002, left behind a wife and nine children.
Chamberlain was arrested after a DNA match was made with blood left at the scene, police said.
Police say Chamberlain had approached one of Gracius' coworkers in the T.G.I. Friday's parking lot 20 minutes before the stabbing, asking him for money.
When officers questioned Chamberlain, he told them he couldn't remember if he was in the parking lot in April and that he has a drug problem and has taken Xanax in the past and sometimes won't remember what he did when he's taken too many.
Chamberlain was being held without bond and it was unknown whether he had an attorney.
