Machete used to kill man in West Palm Beach, police say

A 35-year-old man was arrested Thursday night after allegedly stabbing a man to death with a machete at an apartment complex in West Palm Beach, police said.

Elias Armando Calderon, of West Palm Beach, was booked into the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office Main Detention Center early Friday morning and is facing one count of first-degree murder, West Palm Beach Police said in a news release Friday.

Officers were called shortly after 9:30 p.m. Thursday about a man who was being “hit and stabbed” with a machete at the Saddlebrook Apartments in the 5100 block of Caribbean Boulevard, the release said. The victim, a 68-year-old man who lived in West Palm Beach, was found lying on the ground by the complex’s entrance.

The victim’s name is withheld under Marsy’s Law, a voter-approved constitutional amendment that allows crime victims and their families to shield identifying information from the public. Paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene, the police department said.

Calderon, whom officers witnessed in the apartment complex holding a machete, ran when he saw police. They took him into custody after briefly chasing him on foot, the police department said. He “spontaneously admitted” to stabbing the victim to death as officers detained him.

The police department did not release additional details Friday.