Miami officer fatally shoots man during traffic stop near a high school, police say
A man was shot and killed by a Miami police officer during a traffic stop on the street outside of Miami Northwestern Senior High School late Tuesday afternoon, police said.
Though law-enforcement sources said the initial call went out as an exchange of gunfire before the man was killed, Miami Police Chief Manny Morales wouldn’t confirm that while addressing the media near the scene after the shooting.
Morales said an officer made contact with two men inside a red sedan and after he noticed a weapon, “a struggle ensued and one of the officers discharged his weapon.” The chief said one man was dead and the other man in the car was detained.
A law enforcement source said the officer who fired his weapon was not the officer who initiated the stop. Morales wouldn’t say why police tried to stop the vehicle or if any of the men in the car fired a weapon. He did say a handgun was recovered at the scene. The chief said both men in the car appeared to be adult males.
The shooting took place just before 5 p.m., on Northwest 10th Avenue and 71st Street, several hours after classes had let out at Miami Northwestern. Morales said no one at the school was involved in the incident.
The chief said surveillance video from the school and nearby captured at least parts of the incident.
By late Tuesday evening, police had not released the name of the dead man or the two officers involved. No charges had been filed against the other man in the vehicle who remained in custody.
On Wednesday morning, multiple sources and the Medical Examiner’s Office identified the dead man as Antwon Leonard Cooper, 34.
According to state records, Cooper has a long history of arrests, including convictions for grand-theft auto, selling cocaine, armed burglary, home invasion robbery and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
Cooper was currently awaiting trial on a 2021 misdemeanor charge of petty theft. According to court records, an officer pulled him over in Sunny Isles Beach for having a stolen tag on his car. At the time, Cooper said he’d never had a driver’s license and had not registered his car.
Tuesday’s incident was the second time in the past three weeks that a Miami police officer has shot and killed someone.
A Miami police officer shot and killed 70-year-old Lazaro Vargas-Yera on Feb. 16 in Little Havana during an exchange of gunfire. Police said the officer was called to the home over a domestic violence incident and shot Vargas-Yera after finding the man’s wife shot and injured in the home. She later died.
The officer was not injured. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating both shootings.
This story was originally published March 8, 2022 at 6:50 PM.
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