Miami-Dade officers caught in shootout in the Redland. One man is dead, cops say
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A gunfight between Miami-Dade police and a man they were trying to question ended fatally Wednesday in the Redland, the farmlands of the county.
Around 3 p.m., police say officers in two unmarked pickup trucks boxed the man’s car with their emergency flashing lights on near Southwest 182nd Avenue and 192nd Street.
The man came out of his car holding a gun and there was an exchange of fire, said Detective Alvaro Zabaleta, a Miami-Dade police spokesman. Two officers fired and fatally struck the man.
Who shot first is under investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, but a photo released by police shows one of their trucks windshields riddled with nine bullet holes.
“Thankfully, we’re not planning for a police funeral tomorrow,” Zabaleta said. “This goes to show how dangerous the situation got.”
Search for stolen car leads to shootout
The officers involved were assigned to the department’s Illegal Dumping Unit, which regularly patrols the Redland, Zabaleta said.
They were responding to a call to be on the lookout for two men wanted for questioning in a possible stolen car case, Zabaleta said.
About an hour before the shooting, a man told police his car was stolen and was able to track it to the farm region.
He spotted two men in a black car and confronted them. Some sort of altercation occurred and the men in the black car drove off. It’s not clear if they are suspected of stealing the man’s car, Zabaleta said. After they drove away, the man called 911 and police put out the alert for them and the car.
The Illegal Dumping Units almost immediately saw the car and officers in one truck parked in front of it, and the other parked on the side.
The chaos ensued seconds later, Zabaleta said.
“It’s a rude awakening of how dangerous it is, not only for our officers, but for officers around the world, when they go to work,” Zabaleta said.
It’s not clear if the other man who was in the car during the argument was still in it when the shootout happened, Zabaleta said.
The car was parked in front of a house during the shooting, and a woman and two children came out immediately after the shots were fired. She was briefly detained but has since been released, police say.
It was not immediately known if the man who was killed lived at that house.
Police have not identified the dead man. The two officers who fired their weapons also were not named Wednesday, but Zabaleta said they are 24- and 25-year veterans of the department respectively.
Miami Herald reporter Devoun Cetoute contributed to this report.
This story was originally published November 29, 2023 at 4:50 PM.
