Hollywood police: Fourth of July Airbnb stay ends in fatal shooting

At 1923 Funston St. in Hollywood, a Fourth of July Airbnb stay ended with a fatal shooting inside a house, leaving 21-year-old Jaydon Williams dead and 21-year-old Devian Blount in custody. Officers responded at about 12:52 a.m. to 1923 Funston St., where they heard someone calling for help and found Williams lying face down on a bed with multiple gunshot wounds.

Williams was still alive when officers reached him, but he died at Memorial Regional Hospital at 2:10 a.m. Blount, of Graham, North Carolina, is the suspect, and police charged him with first-degree murder with a firearm. Investigators allege the shooting was premeditated. Blount left the scene, later returned to the area and was arrested, and he is being held without bond at the Broward Main Jail. Hollywood police handle homicide cases through the Criminal Investigations Division.

The friends spent part of the day at a yacht party off Miami, then split up, with some heading to LIV Nightclub while Blount and Williams stayed behind. Williams was on FaceTime with his girlfriend when the call abruptly ended after the shooting, and she later called 911. Detectives found no obvious argument before the gunfire, though one witness heard someone accuse Williams of stealing property on the boat trip.

Hollywood defines a vacation rental as a dwelling advertised or rented for fewer than 30 days, or one calendar month, more than three times a year. It requires an online application, notarized owner certification and a noise-level detection device in every vacation rental, with related data kept for 180 days. City enforcement of the updated noise-ordinance rules began May 1, 2021.

Broward State Attorney Harold F. Pryor put the county at about 2 million residents and 20.9 million visitors each year. Memorial Regional Hospital, where Williams died, is one of Florida’s Level I trauma centers.