Man steals bike, SUV, crashes into South Dade store, loses gunfight with cops, police say
A dangerous rampage turned deadly in South Miami-Dade Thursday afternoon when police shot and killed a man who had just crashed the vehicle he was driving into a convenience store.
But before the shooting, police and witnesses say, the man stole a bike, abandoned it and stole an SUV, fired his weapon at two people and got into at least one firefight with police.
By late Thursday afternoon police had not named the dead man. And no innocent bystanders or police officers were hurt.
“Miraculously, no one was injured,” said Miami-Dade Police Detective Alvaro Zabaleta.
According to police, the incident began just after 1 p.m. near Southwest 168th Street and Miami-Dade’s Busway. That’s when, witnesses told police, the man attempting to steal a bike attached to the front of the bus was confronted by the bike’s owner. The robbery suspect fired his weapon, police said, but missed.
Then he fled on the bike.
“He’s still armed with the gun,” said Zabaleta at the time.
About eight blocks north on Southwest 160th Street and 95th Avenue, the man arrived at a Marathon Gas Station. But, Zabaleta said, the clerk working there noticed the biker and locked the doors to the store. The man began firing, indiscriminately, Zabaleta said. He was confronted by police. The detective said it’s not yet clear if police shot back at the man at the gas station.
“He’s angry, infuriated, shoots at random,” said Zabaleta.
Before police were able to capture him, the man hopped into an unoccupied Range Rover that was filling up with gas and took off south. With police on his tail, the man eventually crashed the SUV into the First Stop Market storefront at Southwest 173rd Terrace and Homestead Avenue, just northwest of Cutler Bay.
Zabaleta said the man got our of the SUV and ran into the store. When he came back out police were waiting for him.
A gunfight ensued and the man was shot dead.
WPLG Channel 10 reported that the man’s family said he suffered from some type of mental illness.
The chaos and danger of the chase and gunfire drew the attention of Miami-Dade Police Director Alfredo “Freddy” Ramirez, who visited the scene.
“In plain daylight,” the director said, “we had an active-shooter type environment.”
This story was originally published March 18, 2021 at 2:18 PM.
