Christian Joseph Ippolito, 24, of Lantana, was arrested June 3 and charged with two counts of second-degree attempted murder in the Memorial Day shooting outside The Standard Cuisine & Cocktails in Boca Raton. Photo provided
By Larry Barszewski
A 24-year-old Lantana man — a former Olympic Heights High School football player — was arrested June 3 in the Memorial Day shooting of two people near The Standard Cuisine & Cocktails establishment at Royal Palm Place in Boca Raton, according to police records.
Police said they charged Christian Joseph Ippolito with two counts of second-degree attempted murder with a firearm and one count of shooting into an occupied dwelling. Ippolito is being held without bond at the Palm Beach County Jail.
The shooting occurred about 12:35 a.m. May 25 after a verbal altercation between Ippolito and one of the victims outside the restaurant, witnesses told police. The two knew each other, police said.
The restaurant’s manager, seeing the confrontation building on The Standard’s patio, directed nearby patrons into The Standard and away from the scene, police said.
A witness who also saw that a confrontation was imminent, tried to keep the two apart before the shooting, police said. However, the witness was unsuccessful as “Ippolito retrieved a firearm from his waistband area and shot two rounds in the direction of the victim,” a police statement said. Two 9mm shell casings were recovered at the scene, police said.
The witness, who knew Ippolito because he was a football teammate of his at Olympic Heights, showed police he also was grazed in the arm by one of the shots, but he declined to report it, police said.
The victim in the shouting match, identified as Nicholas Thomas, 43, sustained a chest wound and was taken to Delray Medical Center, where he was in stable condition as of June 4, police said.
A second victim, identified as Michael Francis Bogdan, 48, was in the restaurant when the shots were fired and was struck in his right leg. He also was taken to Delray Medical Center and was later released from the hospital, police said.
Bogdan told police he hadn’t been aware of the altercation and only realized he had been shot while standing in the restaurant, according to the police report.
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