Investigators say footage captured a pursuit and fatal confrontation that differed from key parts of the suspect’s initial explanation.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. — Surveillance video became a central piece of evidence against a 27-year-old Florida man accused of killing his roommate with a machete after investigators said the recording contradicted key parts of the story he initially gave police about the Aug. 2 confrontation.

Edy Rivas Rizo faces a first-degree murder charge in the death of a roommate at the Sea Esta Mobile Home Park in Hallandale Beach. Police were called to the 300 block of Sea Esta Lane at about 1:15 p.m. after reports of a stabbing. Officers found the wounded man outside, and he was taken to HCA Florida Aventura Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The victim’s name was redacted from an arrest report obtained by news organizations. Rivas Rizo was arrested after police reviewed video, spoke with witnesses and searched the residence the men shared.

The investigation, as described in the arrest report, quickly focused on what cameras recorded before and during the confrontation. Police said the footage showed Rivas Rizo carrying what investigators described as a large machete-style knife while following or chasing the victim, who was trying to get away. The recording then showed Rivas Rizo swing the weapon toward the other man before the two struggled on the ground, investigators said. Two witnesses intervened and managed to take the weapon away. That sequence would later become important when detectives compared the footage with Rivas Rizo’s account of what had happened.

One witness remained with the injured man after the struggle ended while another walked away with Rivas Rizo, according to police. Investigators said the victim moved about 15 yards before collapsing. The witness who stayed with him told detectives that the wounded man gestured toward Rivas Rizo and said, “That guy just killed me.” Emergency crews transported him to the hospital, but he did not survive. The statement became another piece of evidence investigators documented alongside the surveillance recording and witness interviews. Police have not publicly identified the victim in the reports reviewed for this story.

Officers were told that Rivas Rizo lived at the mobile home park and had returned to the residence. Police said they ordered him outside and he complied. He was shirtless, had blood on him and suffered a significant cut to his right hand, according to the arrest report. The injury was treated at a hospital. Detectives later obtained a warrant to search the home. Investigators reported finding a large amount of blood inside and locating the machete in a storage area toward the back of the residence. Police said blood appeared to be on its handle. The available reports do not describe any completed forensic testing on the weapon.

Rivas Rizo gave investigators an account that placed the beginning of the violence inside or near the home. Police said he told them the victim came from his room, struck him near the eye and was armed with a knife. Rivas Rizo also told detectives that he feared for his life. According to the arrest report, he claimed during questioning that the victim had possession of the machete and that the fatal injury happened when the man accidentally fell onto its blade during the struggle. Authorities said he did not explain why the victim would have threatened him. Those statements represented Rivas Rizo’s account during a police interrogation and have not been established as facts in court.

The surveillance footage presented investigators with a different sequence, police said. Detectives reported that Rivas Rizo initially denied chasing his roommate. After officers showed him the recording, however, they said he acknowledged pursuing the man. His explanation then changed again: According to police, Rivas Rizo said he intended to hit the victim with the broad side of the machete rather than its sharpened edge. Investigators cited those changes, along with the video, the witness accounts and evidence recovered from the residence, as they built the case that led to the murder charge. The public reports do not include a defense attorney’s response to the police version of events.

A second witness gave detectives additional information about what happened around the shared residence. That person told police that he lived with both Rivas Rizo and the victim and remembered Rivas Rizo leaving the home and going after the victim. The witness later saw Rivas Rizo return with the machete and place it somewhere inside, according to the arrest report. Police subsequently recovered the weapon during the warranted search. The witness statements were significant because they gave investigators accounts from people who were present around the confrontation rather than relying only on the statements of the accused man and the surveillance recording.

The first-degree murder charge alleges an intentional and premeditated killing, but the filing of that charge is not a finding of guilt. Prosecutors would have to prove the allegation in court, and Rivas Rizo is entitled to challenge the government’s evidence and its interpretation of the video, statements and physical evidence. The reports reviewed for this story did not provide a detailed account of what preceded the dispute, and police had not publicly identified a motive. They also did not establish why the confrontation between the roommates began or provide an independently verified account of any earlier disagreement between the two men.

The case later drew the attention of federal immigration authorities. The Department of Homeland Security said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement lodged a detainer with the Broward County Jail on Aug. 3, one day after Rivas Rizo’s arrest. DHS identified him as a Nicaraguan national and said he entered the United States through California in April 2022, where he was apprehended by U.S. Border Patrol before being released into the country. An immigration detainer asks the local jail to notify federal authorities before a person is released so ICE can seek custody. It does not determine the outcome of the pending murder prosecution.

The federal announcement came more than a week after the killing and used the case to criticize previous federal immigration policy. Those political statements are separate from the evidence Hallandale Beach police cited in the homicide investigation. The criminal case rests on the allegations surrounding the Aug. 2 confrontation, including the surveillance recording, witness statements and evidence recovered from the home. Nothing in the available reports indicates that a court has decided the disputed factual questions in the case, including Rivas Rizo’s explanation of how the fatal wound was inflicted.

What remains is a criminal case built around competing accounts of the same afternoon. Prosecutors can point to the surveillance footage, witness statements and Rivas Rizo’s changing explanation, while the defense will have the opportunity to challenge how those pieces fit together. The first-degree murder charge has not been resolved, and the unanswered questions surrounding the confrontation will ultimately have to be tested in court rather than settled by the arrest report.

Author note: Last updated September 9, 2026.