Three men charged, accused of shooting at Miami Gardens police during car chase

Three men have been jailed after they allegedly shot at Miami Gardens detectives during a car chase that ended with one suspect grazed by a police bullet on Monday afternoon.

Creshawn Prince, Dorian Francois and Tyrone Cobbins were each charged with two counts of attempted second-degree murder of a law-enforcement officer, and fleeing and eluding police, according to arrest reports released on Tuesday morning.

According to the reports, the men were in a white Lexus when it was seen driving “carelessly” on Northwest 22nd Avenue, then cutting through a gas station to avoid a traffic light. Two Miami Gardens detectives, in an unmarked SUV and on a surveillance, tried to pull the Lexus over by blaring sirens and activating police lights.

The Lexus didn’t stop. And Prince “leaned out of the front passenger window of the white Lexus and shot toward the undercover vehicle,” an arrest report said. Francois, a passenger in the back, also leaned out and “also shot at the undercover vehicle,” the report said.

The Lexus then crashed into another car on Northwest 27th Avenue, police said. The Lexus stopped and the three men bailed out and ran off and were arrested. One detective shot at one of the men, who was grazed and did not require hospitalization, according to a law-enforcement source. The police shooting itself was not detailed in the arrest reports.

Two guns — and spent casings — were found inside the Lexus, according to the arrest reports.

“Like something you’d see in the movies,” the police union president, Steadman Stahl, said of the car chase and shooting on Monday.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement, as it does for all Miami Gardens police shootings, will investigate the case. Ultimately, the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office will decide whether the Miami Gardens officer was justified in firing his weapon.

This story was originally published May 25, 2021 at 11:00 AM.