A hotel room eviction spirals into a SWAT team call-out and hours of downtown chaos

When a man overstayed his visit in a room on the 21st floor of a Miami hotel on Friday morning, police were called to clear him out, a not uncommon and typically innocuous event.

Then came a report of gunfire ... followed by four hours of uncertainty that paralyzed a section of downtown.

The response from the city of Miami Police Department unfolded like a scene in an action movie: SWAT personnel swarmed the Hilton Hotel’s hallways. A hostage negotiator was readied. The bomb squad stood nearby with its robotic device. Emergency medical technicians positioned themselves with gurneys. Roads were closed. Businesses and schools were shut down. The hotel was partially evacuated.

Finally, the man opened the door and voluntarily surrendered to police. Except, he had no gun. By midafternoon, police were still trying to verify if a weapon had been discharged, without any luck doing so.

What police had not yet said officially: The initial call of shots fired came from one of their own.

“An officer reported gunfire after he got there. Police didn’t find any evidence of gunfire. The initial call was just to remove the guy from the room,” said a law enforcement source familiar with the incident.

Deputy Miami Police Chief Ron Papier said the department had to deploy personnel as if there were a major threat.

“We needed to respond as if there was actually someone in the room firing a gun,” he said.

By Friday afternoon police hadn’t released the name of the man taken into custody. They hadn’t found any evidence of a weapon or that a weapon had been fired. No one was injured. The man inside the hotel room, according to Miami police spokeswoman Kiara Delva, was undergoing a psychological evaluation.

“They’re still searching for bullet holes,” she said. “At this time there are no charges.”

The incident, which locked up a good portion of downtown Miami’s northern end through the lunch time, began during the rush hour when police were called to remove a man from the Hilton Hotel at 1601 Biscayne Boulevard, in the old Omni area of downtown Miami. The man had just spent his 19th night at the hotel, according to police.

When an officer responded, he thought he heard gunfire and called it in. The next four hours were a spectacle of police power and a major inconvenience for local businesses, schools and tourists. Traffic in the surrounding neighborhood came to a halt as streets were closed off.

Also closed were a Burger King and a Checker’s restaurant across the street from the hotel. Nearby schools, like IPreparatory Academy, were placed on lockdown. People staying in the hotel used social media to spread information. One woman posted on Twitter about emergency medical workers moving a gurney through a hallway.

The show of force by Miami police caught tourists by surprise. Jody Sellers and family traveling companions wanted to see Miami for a day after their cruise and before her flight back to San Antonio. What she saw as she checked into the Hilton was SWAT personnel with machine guns and shields. Sellers and hotel staff were evacuated.

“My daughter is with the San Antonio police department, so I knew it was something very serious,” Sellers said.

This story was originally published May 10, 2019 at 11:43 AM.