Homestead police sergeant shoots burglary suspect in face after car chase ends in a crash
A Homestead police officer who got into a wreck with another vehicle driven by a fleeing burglary suspect, fired his gun from inside his patrol car and struck the man twice in the face, police said.
Police identified the wounded man as Maynor Cruz-Solis, 22, of Jupiter and the officer as Sergeant Jose Murillo, who has served for 17 years.
Cruz-Solis remained hospitalized Monday at Jackson South Hospital, where he was in critical but stable condition with wounds to the face. No officers were injured during the chase, according to police.
The Homestead sergeant opened fire from inside his own police car — after it collided with Cruz-Solis’ SUV and both vehicles came to a stop next to each other as the chase ended on the 300 block of North Homestead Boulevard.
No weapon was found inside Cruz-Solis’ 2016 GMC Terrain. A police union official said that in all, four police cars were damaged during the chase, according to a police union official.
“It’s too early to comment yet,” said Steadman Stahl, president of Miami-Dade’s Police Benevolent Association, which represents the Homestead department. “They haven’t even processed the car yet.”
The incident unfolded just before 10 p.m. Sunday as officers were responding to a “burglary in progress” at a home on the 900 block of Northeast Fifth Avenue in Homestead, a city about 40 miles south of Downtown Miami.
According to a law enforcement source, Cruz-Solis had arrived at the home and confronted two people, throwing things at them and acting “deranged and violent.” He even removed a chain-link fence gate and hurled it, the source said.
When officers arrived, they heard screams coming from the home. Cruz-Solis got into the Terrain and drove toward a police car in what appeared to be a move to hit the vehicle, the source said.
A car chase ensued, and ended when the Terrain abruptly stopped on the 300 block of North Homestead Boulevard and collided with a Homestead police car, causing it to spin and come to rest next to Cruz’s SUV. According to the source, that’s when Murillo opened fire from inside his own car, hitting Cruz-Solis in the face.
Investigators believe Cruz-Solis might have been intoxicated, and they are awaiting the results of blood tests.
According to court records, Cruz-Solis has a history of drunken and violent episodes with police and others, not in Miami-Dade County, but in Palm Beach County.
In January 2019, Cruz-Solis was charged with battery on law enforcement officers after Jupiter cops were called to a home because of an “unwanted guest” who wanted to look through a woman’s phone. The woman told officers that Cruz-Solis “has anger issues,” according to an arrest report.
Just a few months later in May 2019, records show, Cruz-Solis was twice arrested for drunken and violent tirades: once for threatening to kill his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend, and another time after smashing a Corona beer bottle in front of an officer responding to a burglar alarm.
Cruz-Solis wound up pleading guilty to all the cases and being sentenced to 364 days in Palm Beach County jail.
The investigation is being handled by Miami-Dade Police. The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office must ultimately rule on whether Murillo fired his weapon lawfully.
This story was originally published December 21, 2020 at 4:07 PM.
