Miami cops kill suspected armed robber on same day feds release department from oversight
On the same day Miami police announced that the U.S. Department of Justice had ended five years of oversight stemming from an investigation into almost three dozen police shootings, two Miami police officers shot and killed a man.
Though no one is contending police acted improperly in the most recent shooting — the dead man is believed to have committed a string of armed robberies the past two weeks and police claim to have recovered a weapon at the shooting site — the timing didn’t go unnoticed.
“It’s bad luck obviously,” said Miami Mayor Francis Suarez. “But it happens. If an officer is confronted with deadly force, they have to use deadly force in response. It’s a sad reality.”
Only a few hours before the deadly encounter, the city announced that DOJ had ended nearly five years of oversight of Miami police. The city’s settlement with the feds, which came after agreements on new use-of-force investigations and training methods, was the result of a lengthy probe into 33 police shootings of mostly Black men dating back more than a decade.
Early Tuesday evening two Miami police officers opened fire on Juan Carlos Pena-Noda, 51, after finding him wandering through Paradise Mobile Home Trailer Park at 2750 NW S. River Drive, with a gun, police said. Detectives had been investigating Pena-Noda, who they suspected committed a string of at least six armed robberies since Feb. 8, including two on Tuesday.
In some cases he threatened workers with a gun. Other times, police said, he used a flare gun. Police say they identified Pena-Noda through surveillance and that all the robberies were similar in nature. No one was injured during any of the heists.
Police and union representatives were quick to say the officers acted properly and were defending themselves. Police also believe Pena-Noda was getting more dangerous and confident with each robbery.
“It started with a flare gun, then upgraded to an actual handgun. There was a robbery every other day, then yesterday he did two more,” said Miami Deputy Police Chief Ron Papier. “We believe the the subject pulled out a handgun when officers encountered him.”
It wasn’t clear Wednesday if Pena-Noda lived in the trailer park. Asked about him and his encounter with police the night before, several residents said they didn’t see anything, didn’t know Pena-Noda and couldn’t even say if he lived there. Resident Raudel Gutierrez said he doubted Pena-Noda lived there, then echoed a common complaint of several residents: Too often, outsiders come by to stir up trouble, giving the rundown trailer park a bad reputation.
“We don’t have thieves here,” Gutierrez said. “People who don’t live here come here and cause problems.”
State records show Pena-Noda’s criminal history dates back 33 years. He’s been arrested at least 18 times since he became an adult. Most of the arrests were for burglary of unoccupied dwellings and many of those cases were dropped. But Pena-Noda was also charged several times with grand theft auto, and for possession of cocaine and domestic violence battery.
After several convictions, state records show, he spent two stints in prison serving almost four years. More recently he was charged by Hialeah police in January with a health safety violation after being suspected of breaking into an unoccupied dwelling.
Miami police believe Pena-Noda used a weapon when ripping off three cellphone stores in the Flagami area between Feb. 8 and Feb. 12. They also suspect him of robbing a coin laundry and another store in the same neighborhood on Wednesday, the day he was shot and killed. Miami police spokesman Kenia Fallat said both officers who fired their weapons struck Pena-Noda.
Pena-Noda was the fourth person shot by a Miami police in the past year, according to police. Two of the shootings were fatal.
The shooting in Miami also happened less than a week after a federal agent, in an unrelated case, shot and killed a suspect in Coral Gables. On Friday, an agent with U.S. Homeland Security Investigations fatally struck Brandon Wimberly, 36, who officials said “brandished” a gun during an investigation into “financial” crimes. Agents had been trying to pull over Wimberly, who was in a van driving through Coral Gables. Another man was also wounded in the shooting.
And like the Miami police shooting, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement will investigate the shooting death.
Miami Herald Staff Writer David Ovalle contributed to this report.
This story was originally published February 17, 2021 at 5:57 PM.
