One man is dead and another is in critical condition after a shooting Tuesday morning in the parking lot of a Denny’s restaurant near the beach.

The dead man, who was identified by his family as Guy Sharpe, 33, of Broadview Estates near North Lauderdale, was driving a blue Kia Rio with another man in the passenger seat when an unknown gunman fired into the car. Sharpe died at Broward General Medical Center.

Police would not confirm Sharpe’s identity nor identify the other man.

Fort Lauderdale police said the man who was killed was in his vehicle outside Denny’s at 3330 E. Oakland Park Blvd. at about 10:30 a.m. when a man jumped out of a beige Pontiac Firebird and starting firing a semi-automatic handgun through the passenger side window.

Witnesses told police that the attacker fired as many as eight shots into the Kia, said Fort Lauderdale police spokesman Detective Mike Reed. One went through the windshield and another shattered the passenger window.

Wounded in the head, chest and left arm, Sharpe still managed to drive away, but lost control and crashed through a section of wooden fencing that separates the restaurant parking lot from a high-rise condominium next door. The car traveled about 20 feet and stopped after it ran into the side of a parked Ford Explorer.

The shooter continued firing at the Kia as it drove away, said Reed. The man then jumped back into the Firebird and the car’s driver sped away.

Sharpe’s passenger, who was shot in the chest, stomach and left arm, remained in critical condition after surgery at Broward General.

Thelma McKenna, the grandmother of Sharpe’s children, said the family had been told little about the shooting.

“We’re all very much in shock,” she said. “The woman he’s engaged to is in New York and she is coming down. I have to try and tell the kids what happened.”

Alicia McKenna, Sharpe’s sister-in-law, said he was a house painter with three children: a 3-month-old son, a 3-year-old son and a 7-year-old daughter.

“I don’t have any idea who he was hanging out with, but he’s never been in trouble as far as I know,” Alicia McKenna said.

A statewide check showed Sharpe had no criminal record.

Shortly after the shooting, detectives swarmed over the parking lot at the Galt Ocean Towers, marking the location of shell casings and going through the Kia’s contents. They included a McDonald’s cup and some clothes recently picked up from the cleaners hanging in the back seat. A bloody towel left by emergency medical workers lay on the driveway.

Reed said the victims had not been inside Denny’s before the shooting. Police have no motive for the attack and say that area of the beach has little serious crime.

Anyone with information can call detectives at 954-828-5534 or Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477.

Ardy Friedberg can be reached at or 954-356-4843.