Boynton Beach Man Faces Murder Charge After Husband’s Fatal Shooting

BOYNTON BEACH – As George Bereska Jr. spoke to a Boynton Beach police dispatcher on Tuesday, August 6, he described shooting her husband in the chest during a “very bad argument”.

As the dispatcher attempted to assist Bereska in providing aid, the 61-year-old Boynton Beach man responded with two words: “He’s dead.”

Officers took Bereska into custody on the morning of Wednesday, Aug. 7, after police found 66-year-old Benjamin Renwick dead on the kitchen floor of the couple’s home in the city’s Leisureville neighborhood, according to a report police officer. Bereska faces a charge of first-degree murder with a firearm.

During a hearing on Wednesday, August 7, at the Palm Beach County Jail, Judge Donald Hafele assigned Bereska a public defender and ordered him held without bail. As a policy, the county Public Defender’s Office does not comment on open cases.

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According to the arrest report, dispatchers received a call shortly after 9:40 p.m. Tuesday from what appeared to be Renwick’s number. A man was heard groaning on the open line, followed by the sound of gunshots. Bereska called two minutes later to report the shooting, police said.

When officers arrived at the home on Southwest 20th Street, south of Woolbright Road near Congress Avenue, they found Bereska sitting on a couch in the northeast corner of the residence. Bereska was detained without incident.

Officers found a Taurus firearm on the dining room table. They noted that there appeared to be no signs of an altercation, such as furniture being moved or items being disarranged.

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They took Bereska to the city police station and tried to interrogate him. Bereska told investigators he was intoxicated and could not remember anything that happened, the report said. He declined to make any further statements.

Officers observed that his body showed no visible signs of injury.

Julius Whigham II is a criminal justice and public safety reporter for The Palm Beach Post. You can contact him at jwhigham@pbpost.com and follow him on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, at @JuliusWhigham. Help support our work: Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on the Palm Beach Post: Boynton Beach Man, 61, Faces Murder Charge in Husband’s Death