Miami man charged with shooting at FBI task force officers and Homestead cop
A Miami man accused of shooting at an unmarked vehicle occupied by two FBI task force officers and a Homestead cop was charged Thursday with assaulting a federal officer with a deadly weapon and related offenses, U.S. authorities said.
James Robert Mills Jr., 21, opened fire at the unmarked white SUV while the three officers were on duty last month in the Homestead area, according to an FBI criminal complaint and affidavit.
A confidential source who witnessed the shooting told investigators that Mills fired at the SUV because the suspect thought it was being driven by a rival gang member, the affidavit says.
Mills, who had his first appearance in Miami federal court Thursday, has a pretrial detention hearing set for Wednesday. Mills faces a potentially long prison sentence if convicted of assaulting a federal officer with a deadly weapon, attempting to murder a federal officer and someone assisting that officer, and discharging a firearm during a violent crime, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
It wasn’t clear if Mills had obtained a defense attorney.
On the evening of Jan. 31, Mills was sitting in the backseat of a parked car with the window down when he fired at the SUV as it drove north on Southwest 116th Avenue near 222nd Street, the affidavit says. After the SUV passed, the car Mills was in gave chase and he continued to shoot at the vehicle.
The three officers in the SUV were able to escape without being wounded by the hail of bullets. The officers did not fire their weapons, the affidavit says. Investigators found two bullet holes in the SUV and recovered 24 nine-millimeter bullet casings and one projectile.
With the help of the confidential source and Miami-Dade police, the FBI investigation zeroed in on Mills and an associate, the driver of the car involved in the shooting. After obtaining a federal search warrant this week, investigators went to the driver’s home. They recovered a Taurus .45 caliber gun and a loaded Glock 9mm pistol with an extended magazine. The Glock was found in the attic of the home where Mills stashed it after the shooting, the affidavit says.
The driver told investigators that he and Mills were present at the time of the shooting, saying that Mills “was armed with a firearm and that Mills fired his weapon,” according to the affidavit. The driver “admitted that he too was armed with a firearm, but he denied firing the weapon.”
This story was originally published February 18, 2022 at 11:56 AM.
