Federal Prosecutor Found Dead Of Possible Gunshot On Florida Beach

A federal prosecutor who was found dead on a Florida beach Wednesday may have been the victim of a crime. Police announced Friday be investigating the death of Beranton J. Whisenant Jr., who worked at the U.S. attorney's office in Miami, as a homicide.

Police said Whisenant, 37, apparently died of a head wound caused by a gunshot or other type of trauma, the Miami-Herald reported Thursday. Whisenant’s body was found in the water near Magnolia Terrance on Hollywood Beach Wednesday but police said it was unclear where, exactly, he died.

“The investigation is still very preliminary,” Hollywood Police Department spokeswoman Miranda Grossman said, according to the Herald. “All I can confirm is that It is him.”

The circumstances surrounding his death were still being investigated, though the Herald noted that if his death was in some way related to a case he was pursuing, the FBI and district attorney’s offices would be much more involved. Instead, the FBI referred all questions to Hollywood police.

Whisenant’s body was found by a passerby who saw him in the water. Police then pulled him to shore.

“When the tide came in he obviously was caught in the surf and tumbling, about a 35-year-old African American man, very well dressed wearing a sort of a casual business shirt, black pants,” resident Bill Renick told WTVJ-TV. “All of his personal effects were on him and that’s what we found unusual.”

No arrests had yet been made, but detectives from the Hollywood Police Department’s Homicide Division continued to investigate the case. Should investigators find Whisenant was the victim of some sort of foul play, he would join a list of only about 10 prosecutors who have been killed in modern history.

“They’re not out on the street at 2 a.m. confronting people who are intoxicated, armed and violent,” Scott Burns, executive director of the National District Attorneys Association, told KXAS-TV in 2013 after assistant district attorney Mark Hasse was killed in Texas. “So when a prosecutor is killed, they are almost always premeditated attacks, which kind of raises the level of egregiousness.

Acting U.S. Attorney Benjamin Greenberg issued a statement on behalf of the department regarding Whisenant's death.

“The U.S. Attorney’s Office family was deeply saddened and shocked to learn of Beranton’s death,” said Greenberg. “He was a great lawyer and wonderful colleagues and we will miss him deeply. Our thoughts are with Beranton’s family and friends.”

Whisenant joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami as part of its major crimes unit and was handling visa and passport fraud cases, according to court records. He was also an adjunct professor at the University of Miami’s paralegal program. Whisenant graduated from the University of Florida’s law school before being admitted to the Florida bar in 2004.

Whisenant had recently prosecuted a case involving two South Florida residents charged with shooting a member of the U.S. Postal Service, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice.

“He was the epitome of a gentleman and possessed an exceptional legal mind,” Michael Feiler, a Miami lawyer and friend of Whisenant’s, told the Herald.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified the deceased man in a photograph.