Pinecrest officer cleared in shooting that starts at gas station and ends in chase
The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office has cleared a Pinecrest police officer involved in a shooting last summer that began in a Pinecrest gas station, led to a police chase and ended 20 miles later with a controversial police maneuver.
And as the suspect fled, the officer fired nine shots into a moving vehicle, something the department generally prohibits.
“The investigation has determined that the officer was legally justified in the use of force by discharging his weapon,” Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle wrote in a memo last week.
The suspect, Adolfo Denis, a 25-year-old locksmith from Homestead who had a clean record, now faces felony charges, after he raced off from the Mobil station at U.S. 1 near Southwest 104th Street on a Saturday night last July. In so doing, he grazed a police car and injured an officer, which set in motion a swarming of police officers responding to the call.
The officer, Andres Garcia, was cleared of any wrongdoing for firing nine shots at Denis as he drove away.
Pinecrest Police Chief Jason Cohen told the Herald that Garcia’s clearing was “expected.”
He wrote that Denis’ actions “endangered the lives of his own passengers and innocent motorists when he fled” and that Garcia “was fortunate he was not killed.”
Garcia has since returned to active duty, and the department will conduct an administrative review of his use of force incident as part of “standard procedure.”
Denis’ lawyer, Jude Faccidomo, meanwhile, called the prosecutors’ decision hasty and unfair.
“From the very beginning this was an attempt to cover up the reckless, dangerous and, we think, criminal actions of Officer Garcia,” Faccidomo said.
Surveillance footage shows Denis with his girlfriend and a friend in a red Can-Am BRP Maverick XRS off-road vehicle at the Mobil gas station at 10345 S. Dixie Hwy. in the affluent village of Pinecrest at around 9 p.m on July 19, 2025. Denis gassed up, and other riders went inside the station to buy Gatorade and ice, preparing to go off-roading in southern Miami-Dade.
In audio files reviewed by the Miami Herald, a 911 caller claimed that the Mobil gas station had been taken over by many bikes and vehicles, and that the riders had stopped in front of his car, challenged him at the nearby Southwest 104th Street intersection and nearly hit his vehicle.
The initial “Be On the Lookout” issued by a dispatcher said about 20 bikers took over the gas station, but did not mention ATVs. A later communication between an officer and a dispatcher clarified that the calls referenced both ATVs and dirt bikes, information the FDLE report later repeated. The video of the gas station appears to show seven off-road vehicles parked before the police arrived.
The FDLE report specifically stated that a 911 caller claimed 20-30 “side by side” riders of ATVs and dirt bikes were attempting to take over the busy intersection, and another eight were parked at the gas station, prompting two police vehicles to arrive at the gas station.
The same surveillance footage shows Garcia pulling up in front of Denis’ vehicle. Denis immediately accelerates to get away, scraping Garcia’s car in the process.
Garcia is opening his car door at that very moment, and fires nine shots at Denis with his 9 mm Glock pistol as Denis speeds toward and past him.
“Shots fired! Shots fired!” Garcia said over the police radio. “I got hurt. Shots fired!”
Confused by Garcia’s wording, police thought he’d been shot. Officers from multiple agencies swarmed, chasing Denis for more than 20 miles. The chase ended on Krome Avenue at Southwest 168th Street, when a Florida Highway Patrol trooper used a “PIT” maneuver — or Precision Immobilization Technique. The controversial maneuver involves an officer pushing the rear corner of a fleeing vehicle so that it will spin out of control.
The state attorney’s closeout memo says witnesses interviewed for the review described Denis accelerating his vehicle first and gunshots happening second, but that Garcia declined to make any statements.
Denis was released and is wearing an ankle bracelet. He faces felony charges of high-speed fleeing and eluding, aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer, leaving the scene of a crash with serious bodily injury and a traffic citation for improper operation of an ATV.
Denis also was initially charged with attempted murder and a misdemeanor for leaving the scene of an accident with property damage, both of which have been dropped. He has pleaded not guilty.
Garcia, who was hired in 2021 and honored last year as Pinecrest’s officer of the year, suffered a swollen left foot. In the audio files an officer described Garcia as looking like his left foot had been run over. Both the FDLE and State’s Attorney Office also describe the injury as to the leg.
The State Attorney’s Office report justified its decision based on the “Stand Your Ground” statute and another “use of force” statute.
Under “Stand Your Ground,” an officer is justified in using deadly force if they believe it is necessary to “prevent imminent death or great bodily harm” to themselves or others or to prevent the potential commission of a forcible felony.
The other statute applied in the ruling uses similar language in that an officer is justified in “any force” if they believe it necessary to defend themselves from bodily harm while making an arrest.
The report stated that there is “substantial creditable evidence” that Denis committed an aggravated battery causing injury to Garcia, and that Denis’ subsequent police chase and “reckless operation” of his ATV that resulted in the striking of another police cruiser showed “disregard” toward his and the public’s safety.
Based on these statutes, “Officer Garcia was authorized to make an arrest for a forcible felony, and he was also authorized to use deadly force in self-defense or in defense of others,” the report concluded.
Faccidomo, Denis’ attorney, described the “use of force” statute used by state attorney’s office as a “carte blanche” that allows officers to use deadly force without consequence. Prosecutions of Florida officers who fire their weapons are exceedingly rare.
According to a State Attorney’s Office spokesperson, there have been as few as two convictions in Florida of police officers who fired their weapons in the line of duty in the last two to three decades. One was overturned on appeal.
“As you know, Florida’s criminal statutes set high thresholds for proving criminal wrongdoing by police officers firing their weapons in the line of duty,” spokesman Ed Griffith said in an email.
Garcia’s union, the South Florida Police Benevolent Association, told the Herald in a written statement that the “State Attorney’s Office decision speaks for itself.”
“It’s what we anticipated all along,” the statement read. “This was never a questionable shooting.”
Faccidomo described the review as “rushed” and said the State Attorney’s Office has a clear motive for moving to clear Garcia, as Garcia serves as the victim in the office’s case against his client.
He also argued that under Marsy’s Law, an amendment that dictates the rights of crime victims, Denis and the other passengers in the car should have been interviewed for the investigation given they were shot at.
