Two men killed after shooting at police in separate South Florida incidents are identified

A man shot and killed by Homestead police after they say he opened fire on them early Sunday has been identified as 27-year-old La Garion Smith.

Smith, who was suspected of breaking into a house, led officers on a foot chase, winding up in front of Homestead City Hall about 2:22 a.m. on Sunday, according to Miami-Dade police.

Officials say that Smith, from a handicap access ramp next to a concrete wall, opened fire on Homestead officers. Five of them returned fire. One officer was grazed in the pants, but uninjured. The shooting was captured on City Hall video surveillance cameras, police said, but footage has not yet been released to the public.

Smith was the second man shot to death by South Florida police officers in three days.

On New Year’s Eve, a Miami police officer shot and killed Rodolfo Caraballo Moreno, after they said he opened fire at a home near Coral Way. The officers had been responding to calls of shots fired out on the street, and witnesses directed them to his door.

One law-enforcement source said Caraballo opened the door and immediately opened fire. One Miami officer returned fire and Caraballo was mortally wounded. He later died at Jackson Memorial Hospital. The shooting was captured on police body-worn cameras.

His relatives told WPLG-10 that Caraballo, an air-conditioning repairman, might have believed he was defending himself.

“No police officer ever wants to come to work and use force and have to use their firearms,” Miami police union president Tommy Reyes said, adding that the officer has been placed on leave for at least one week under department policy.

The investigation into the Miami shooting is being handled by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

The use of deadly force by police has become a flash point across the country in recent years. Over the summer, Black Lives Matter protests against police took place in South Florida and in cities across the country, spurred by the death of George Floyd, killed by a knee to the neck from a Minnesota police officer.

In both cases from recent days, the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office will eventually rule on whether the shooting was justified under state law.

Reached by the Herald on Monday, La Garion Smith’s mother declined to comment. Miami-Dade County Commissioner Kionne McGhee, who represents the Homestead area, said that he has been in touch with the family, community leaders and police and “monitoring” the investigation.

“I want to make sure this investigation is done thoroughly so that the community and the family can have truth, justice and closure,” McGhee said in the statement.

According to court records, Smith was on house arrest and awaiting trial on allegations of domestic violence.

In that case, Homestead police arrested Smith after an officer ran across him with his girlfriend on a street just after midnight on Oct. 25. The woman began to yell that “he just beat me up” and an officer noticed blood near her chin. The woman said Smith had roughed her up, grabbed her and tried to take her to a hotel.

According to Homestead police, Smith ran away and was later captured after a foot chase.

Smith was awaiting trial on charges of battery, false imprisonment, robbery by sudden snatching and resisting arrest without violence. He was not in jail but was wearing an electronic GPS ankle monitor and was not supposed to leave his house in Homestead. On Sunday, at 1:52 a.m., the corrections department received an ankle monitor “tamper alert,” which meant that Smith might have left his home. It’s unclear if any officers were responding to that alert.

But within minutes, police said, Homestead officers were “dispatched” to a nearby home after a call about an intruder who had just run away. They later found a man nearby who they say led them on a chase that ended in front of Homestead City Hall.

“The subject shot at the officers and they returned fire, striking him,” according to a press release from the Miami-Dade Police Department, which is investigating the shooting. “Investigators have recovered the subject’s firearm on the scene.”

Sources say the Homestead officers who fired are: Ryan Khawly, Bryant Escalante, Raul Perez, Christian DeJohn and Lesly Innocent. Escalante’s pants were grazed.

It was the second police-involved shooting by a Homestead police officer in the past two weeks.

On Dec. 21, a Homestead police sergeant chasing a burglary suspect shot and critically injured the man after a brief car chase. The sergeant, 17-year veteran Jose Murillo, fired his weapon from inside his damaged vehicle and struck Maynor Cruz-Solis, 22, who was in another vehicle, twice in the face.

He survived and is awaiting trial on charges of armed robbery, armed burglary, criminal mischief and petty theft, court records show.

This story was originally published January 4, 2021 at 1:52 PM.