Four wounded in shootout involving police at Biscayne Boulevard in North Miami Beach
Four people were wounded during a shootout that began as a gun battle between two speeding cars — and ended with a North Miami Beach police sergeant returning fire after he tried to stop them.
The mayhem along one of North Miami-Dade’s busiest intersections ended without major injury, but shut down Biscayne Boulevard and Northeast 163rd Street for nearly seven hours Thursday morning.
After the police shootout around 2:43 a.m., the cars took off.
Police later found one of the cars, a white BMW, with four injured people inside. They appeared to have gunshot wounds, their injuries “consistent with a gunshot wound and/or a graze,” North Miami Beach Police Chief Richard Rand said at a news briefing.
The four injured were men in their 20s, police say, and were taken to the hospital. Their injuries are not life-threatening. It’s not clear if they were injured during the shootout with the other car or with the officer.
The people in the other car, a four-door black Charger, got away. Police say it is not clear where the cars were coming from.
Rand said the sergeant, who has worked with the police department for six years, was not injured.
“Thank God I don’t have an injured officer ... We will catch the people involved in this. We have some good leads,” Rand said.
The four-way intersection of Biscayne Boulevard and Northeast 163rd Street, which has a Shell gas station and a strip club, was surrounded by crime tape. Dozens of evidence markers were scattered on the road. Police say they’ve found bullet casings across at least 20 blocks, according to WSVN.
Anyone with information that can help with the investigation should call police.
Thursday’s shootout has capped a week of violence involving South Florida officers:
▪ On Oct. 25, at least one Miami-Dade police officer shot a man wanted for an armed home invasion after police say he tried to hit them with a car. The suspect later died at the hospital.
▪ On Friday, two Doral police officers were wounded after a man opened fire on them. Police shot back and the suspect — identified by sources as Yordany Rodriguez Perez, 24, of Hialeah — was killed.
▪ And on Oct. 18, Hollywood Police Officer Yandy Chirino was shot and killed while trying to apprehend an armed burglary suspect.
This story was originally published October 28, 2021 at 6:27 AM.
