Shooter in deadly parking-space dispute at a Broward Walmart avoids charges

Crime admin September 3, 2026 0 Comments

Shooter in deadly parking-space dispute at a Broward Walmart avoids charges

Broward County prosecutors are not charging a woman who shot and killed a man in a North Lauderdale Walmart parking lot in June because they say her actions fell within Florida’s Stand Your Ground self-defense law.

Specifically, the State Attorney’s Office said this week that its prosecutors would not be able to prove that Melissa Payne was not in fear for her life or of great bodily harm when she shot 62-year-old Bart DiGuglielmo on June 30.

The shooting, which happened around 12:30 p.m., was captured on several witnesses’ cellphone cameras, and the footage shows DiGuglielmo move toward Payne, who is pointing a gun at him and warning him not to come closer before she pulls the trigger, prosecutors say.

“The video does not demonstrate that [Payne] was in the right, rather it demonstrates that the State of Florida cannot overcome her claim that she was in reasonable fear of great bodily harm by clear and convincing evidence,” Stephen J. Zaccor, division chief of the State Attorney’s Office homicide trial unit, wrote in a Sept. 1 memo.

“Florida is a Stand Your Ground State. [Payne] did not have to wait to be attacked before resorting to deadly force. She did not have to retreat as long as her fear was reasonable, and no evidence has been presented to disprove that,” Zaccor continued.

An argument over a parking spot at the West McNab Road Walmart was the impetus for the shooting, according to the Broward County Sheriff’s Office.

“A dispute over a parking space. In a Walmart parking lot,” Zaccor wrote. “The facts surrounding the June 30, 2026, homicide of Bart DiGuglielmo are as tragic as they are absurd.”

This is what happened that day, according to Zaccor’s memo:

Payne arrived around 12:20 p.m. with her niece and her niece’s infant daughter in her Chevrolet Malibu. DiGuglielmo arrived at the same time in his Kia Soul. They both approached the same parking space, and a “stalemate” over the spot ensued, neither driver relenting.

DiGuglielmo eventually got out of his car and left it in the through lane, grabbed a shopping cart and went inside the store.

Payne then parked the Malibu in the disputed space.

About 90 seconds later, DiGuglielmo returned to his car. A witness told deputies that she heard him threaten to “[Expletive] your [expletive] up” as he got inside the Kia and sped off two aisles over. He parked the car and walked under a tree to smoke a cigarette. Two witnesses said he was “visibly angry” and shaking.

Almost a minute later, DiGuglielmo walked toward Payne’s car. She got out, holding a cellphone in her left hand and a gun in her right, yelling, “If you keep coming up to me, I’m going to shoot you.” He kept approaching.

Again, Payne yelled, “Don’t come over here. Don’t come near my car. Don’t try that.”

DiGuglielmo backed off for a second, but then “continued to aggressively approach [Payne],” Zaccor wrote.

As he advanced, DiGuglielmo was holding a key and gesturing that he was going to damage Payne’s car, Zaccor states. Payne kept backing up as DiGuglielmo neared her, then she shot him once in the abdomen.

She then placed her hands on the roof of her car and waited for deputies to take her into custody, according to the memo.

Paramedics took DiGuglielmo to Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale, where he died. His toxicology report showed he had amphetamines, THC and an anti-depressant in his system, according to the memo.

According to his obituary, DiGuglielmo was an intensive-care nurse who worked at several burn centers during his career. He was a decorated U.S. Army veteran of Operation Desert Storm, earning two Bronze Stars, the obituary states.

Miami Herald Staff Writer Sofia Saric contributed to this report.