Judge refuses to keep Pinecrest police shooting report secret
One minute, Adolfo Denis Jr. was filling an all-terrain vehicle with gas at a Pinecrest Mobil station. The next, he was racing off in a hail of police gunfire, accused of trying to kill a Pinecrest police officer.
The officer, Andres Garcia, had radioed for help: “Shots fired! Shots fired! I got hurt, shots fired!”
The allegations soon grew: county deputies were told that “25 to 30 males” shot a Pinecrest police officer. One dispatcher had told another that “one of their officers … had been shot by a large group of bikers.”
In reality, the only person who had fired a gun was Officer Garcia himself. And no one was shot.
New details of the July 19, 2025, police shooting and subsequent chase emerged Wednesday after Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Tanya Brinkley allowed the public release of a Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigative report.
Miami-Dade Prosecutor Andres Perez argued Wednesday that the report should remain confidential until the State Attorney’s Office completes an investigation into Officer Garcia’s firing of his weapon.
But Judge Brinkley said there was no “meat and potatoes” to the state’s argument. Perez admitted he didn’t know anything about the investigation because he isn’t involved in it.
“This arrest is almost a year old,” she said in the morning hearing. “... Just because you say it’s an ongoing investigation, and you call it that, without more, doesn’t make it that.”
The McClatchy Company, publisher of the Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald, and NBCUniversal Media, operator of South Florida’s WTVJ-NBC 6 and Telemundo 51, had requested the report’s disclosure. Attorneys Mark Caramanica and Daniela Abratt-Cohen argued in a motion that the FDLE report is “at the core of the public’s understanding of the case.”
The case was yet another recent instance in which a relatively low-level alleged offense — in this case potential traffic violations — escalates to deadly force or a police chase.
The State Attorney’s Office denied the Herald’s request for the FDLE report last week, and even after Wednesday’s ruling, did not release it despite multiple requests.
Denis, 25, is on house arrest, facing felony charges of high-speed fleeing and eluding, aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer and leaving the scene of a crash with serious bodily injury. He also was charged with misdemeanor leaving the scene of an accident with property damage and a traffic citation for improper operation of an ATV.
Though he initially was charged with attempted murder, prosecutors have dropped that charge. His attorney, Jude Faccidomo, said the report shows “they created the panic. Mr. Denis was not on the streets. It’s not even a traffic ticket. ... Thankfully, Mr. Garcia did not have great aim or we’d be having a very different conversation.”
Officer Garcia’s attorney and union representative could not be reached for comments despite calls and emails. The State Attorney’s Office also did not respond to a request for comments.
According to the FDLE report, a 911 caller claimed 20-30 “side by side” riders of ATVs and dirt bikes were attempting to take over an intersection, and another eight were parked at the Mobil gas station at 10345 South Dixie Highway in Pinecrest.
Video of the scene shows ATVs at the gas pumps. Denis, his girlfriend and a friend are in a red Can-Am BRP Maverick XRS off-road vehicle. He gasses up. Officer Garcia pulls up in front of Denis’s vehicle, and Denis immediately accelerates to exit through a space between the patrol car and the gas pumps. The ATV strikes a metal barrier near the gas pump and scrapes Officer Garcia’s car. Garcia is opening his car door at that very moment, and fires nine shots at Denis with his 9 mm Glock pistol as Denis speeds toward and past him.
The entire episode lasts just seconds.
Garcia, who was hired in 2021 and honored last year as Pinecrest’s officer of the year, suffered a swollen foot.
Denis fled from a giant swarm of police from multiple agencies for more than 20 miles. According to the report, he hit a sheriff’s deputy’s car at one point, then finally came to a stop after a Florida Highway Patrol trooper used a “PIT” maneuver — or Precision Immobilization Technique — intentionally ramming the ATV.
This story was originally published April 29, 2026 at 6:50 PM.
