By Rachel Frazin
The Palm Beach Post
BOCA RATON, Fla. — A Palm Beach County firefighter is facing charges that he fired a gun in public and unlawfully had prescription drugs in his possession during an incident Sunday night in Boca Raton.
City police say they found a .40-caliber handgun in Daniel Strong’s waistband when they detained him and another man near Hijinks Sports Grill on Southeast Mizner Boulevard. The gun had recently been fired and it matched a projectile found near Silver Palm Park, on East Palmetto Park Road at the Intracoastal Waterway.
Strong has been a Palm Beach County firefighter and paramedic since 2007. Because of his arrest, he was placed on administrative leave without pay, said Capt. Albert Borroto, spokesman for Palm Beach County Fire Rescue.
Strong was booked into the Palm Beach County Jail early Monday and released Tuesday on a $8,000 bond.
According to a city police report, the person who reported the shooting told officers that he was fired at by two unknown men and that a bullet grazed his chest. The two people had driven away in a newer-model orange BMW, the report said.
Police tracked the car to Southeast Mizner Boulevard and detained Strong and another man, who were standing near it. They found a .40-caliber handgun in his waistband, as well as half of a hydrocodone pill and half of a Viagra pill.
A crime-scene technician determined that Strong’s gun not only matched the projectile from the crime scene but that it also was missing one round.
Officers say Strong told them his gun had fired accidentally when he dropped it while climbing out of a boat. He also reportedly said that he had prescriptions for the pills but could not produce them.
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