6 police officers injured, 2 suspects killed in shootings
3 Miami-Dade police officers suffered non-life threatening injuries; 2 Miami officers complain of ear aches; 1 Hialeah officer injured
Miami-Dade police secure the scene where at least one suspect was shot dead after a confrontation with police just east of Northwest 27th Avenue and 65th Street on Tuesday.
Read more: http://www.wsvn.com/news/articles/l...2-subjects-dead-after-shooting/#ixzz2n6ctC1nz
MIAMI -
Six police officers suffered injuries early Tuesday in shootouts with two men, both of whom were killed.
The officer who was shot in the stomach was listed in stable condition, said Det. Alvaro Zabaleta.
The other two Miami-Dade police officers were shot in their arms. They were released from the hospital later in the morning, said police spokesman Javier Baez.
"We're very fortunate, very lucky that today was not another tragic day for this community," said John Rivera, president of the Dade County Police Benevolent Association. "We got to see today how mean the streets of Miami really are and how mean they're getting."
A robbery at a Walgreens at West Flagler Street and 27th Avenue led officers to the 2200 block of Northwest 27th Avenue, where the first officer was shot about 5 a.m. Investigators believe the suspect then took off in the officer's marked unit and abandoned it in Hialeah, said Maj. Nancy Perez.
Officers and two suspects then exchanged gunfire at Northwest 64th Street and 26th Avenue (pictured below) -- where the two officers were shot in their arms -- about 6:30 a.m., said Patterson. Dozens of bullets pierced the blue Volvo convertible the men were inside.
"It sounded like World War III out here," said Tracey Addison, who was getting off the MetroRail when she heard gunfire nearby. "They were shooting at the cops and the cops just shot the whole car up."
One of the suspects was killed and the other was transported to Jackson Memorial Hospital, where he died.
"We do believe that the gentleman that was in this car -- one of them -- was the in fact the person who took the police car and shot our officer," said Patterson.
It wasn't known whether both suspects had been at the scene of the first officer's shooting, or if one joined the other after the patrol car was abandoned, said Perez.
Friends identified one of the men as 27-year-old Adrian Montesano (pictured below). The Volvo was registered to his family.
"Any time an officer is assaulted by anybody, that person is dangerous," said Patterson. "To assault our officer -- and then to turn around and shoot our officer and then to flee in our officer's car -- makes this person dangerous."
"If they're brazen enough to shoot at law enforcement, they're brazen [enough] to shoot at anybody," added Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez. "Unfortunately, this is happening with more frequency."
Police haven't identified the officers or the suspects.
The two Miami police officers complaining of ear aches because of their closeness to gunfire during the second shooting were transported to Jackson Memorial Hospital as a precaution, according to a department spokesperson. A fourth officer from the Hialeah Police Department was injured by broken glass.
Police closed Northwest 27th Avenue from 24th Street to 20th Street as they investigated.
The officers were taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital. The first officer was shot in the abdomen and underwent surgery, said Miami-Dade Police Director J.D. Patterson.
"Thank God it was not a life-sustaining organ that was penetrated but he did have some internal injuries," he said.
An armed drugstore robbery and subsequent manhunt left three officers shot and two people dead in Northwest Miami-Dade on Tuesday.
Three Miami-Dade officers struck by gunfire — one in the stomach, two in their arms — were rushed to Jackson Memorial Hospital. They all are expected to survive, as are two officers from Miami and one from Hialeah who suffered other injuries in the violent confrontation that spanned multiple scenes and snarled rush-hour traffic.
The deadly series of events began before dawn, when 27-year-old Adrian Montesano tried to rob a Walgreens near Northwest 27th Avenue and West Flagler Street in Little Havana, according to multiple law enforcement sources and a man who said he was a friend of Montesano’s.
A Miami police union released a security camera image showing Montesano holding a woman at gunpoint in the store, his left forearm around her neck and his right hand holding a handgun to her head.
When police caught up with Montesano near Northwest 27th Avenue and 22nd Street, he allegedly shot in the abdomen an officer who tried to arrest him. Montesano ditched his pickup truck emblazoned with his air-conditioning company's logo, taking the Miami-Dade officer's gun and speeding off in the officer's patrol car, police said.
Police found the injured officer's squad car abandoned in Hialeah about 5:30 a.m. Soon after, Hialeah police spotted Montesano and another person in a blue Volvo near East Sixth Street and 10th Avenue.
Officers pursued the Volvo to Northwest 27th Avenue and 65th Street, where it crashed, wedged between a tree and a utility pole.
As police moved in, officers from multiple departments exchanged gunfire with the people who were in the car. Both of them died, police said. It's unclear who Montesano was with or how they got caught up in the incident.
Dozens of officers from several departments congregated at Ryder Trauma Center on Tuesday to support their injured colleagues. The two officers shot in the arms were treated and released; the third was recovering from surgery.
“He’s in good shape and is going to recover. Thank God it was not a life-sustaining organ that was penetrated,” Miami-Dade Police Director J.D. Patterson said of the officer shot in the abdomen, who several law enforcement sources identified as Saul Rodriguez.
Rodriguez also fell under gunfire from a suspect in a 2011 incident in Northwest Miami-Dade. He was not injured, but his partner was shot in the chest area but survived thanks to a bulletproof vest.
Montesano's record shows one previous run-in with the law: a 2007 arrest in Miami Beach after he cut a fence and drove his truck onto the sand at the 79th Street beach. The truck got stuck, and Montesano was using beach signs to try and create traction for his tires, according to an arrest report.
When Miami Beach officers approached him, Montesano cursed and claimed he had a cousin who was in law enforcement, the report noted. He chuckled when officers ordered him to keep his hands in their sight.
"Defendant was verbally abusive," officers wrote.
Montesano went to Hialeah-Miami Lakes Senior High and was working as an A/C repairman, according to a man at the final shooting scene who declined to give his name. Calling himself a friend of Montesano, the man spoke briefly with reporters before detectives asked to speak with him in private.
Montesano had fallen in with the wrong crowd and had gotten into drugs, the friend said, adding that he tried to rob the Walgreens because he needed money.
“He had an addiction,” Montesano’s friend said. “He was good, he was bad. The last time I spoke to him he was good, you know, he was doing his job, working, what he loved to do. I guess he got with the bad people again and it caused him to do all this.”
Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez spoke with two of the injured county officers at the hospital. He said they were holding up well and said investigators were still putting together the pieces of a bizarre, violent puzzle.
“There seem to be more brazen attacks by people who aren’t right,” Gimenez said. “We need to find out what’s going on. It appears to be ... illogical.”
Miami Herald photojournalist Walter Michot, el Nuevo Herald photojournalist CM Guerrero and news partner CBS4 contributed to this report.
3 Miami-Dade police officers suffered non-life threatening injuries; 2 Miami officers complain of ear aches; 1 Hialeah officer injured
Miami-Dade police secure the scene where at least one suspect was shot dead after a confrontation with police just east of Northwest 27th Avenue and 65th Street on Tuesday.
Read more: http://www.wsvn.com/news/articles/l...2-subjects-dead-after-shooting/#ixzz2n6ctC1nz
MIAMI -
Six police officers suffered injuries early Tuesday in shootouts with two men, both of whom were killed.
The officer who was shot in the stomach was listed in stable condition, said Det. Alvaro Zabaleta.
The other two Miami-Dade police officers were shot in their arms. They were released from the hospital later in the morning, said police spokesman Javier Baez.
"We're very fortunate, very lucky that today was not another tragic day for this community," said John Rivera, president of the Dade County Police Benevolent Association. "We got to see today how mean the streets of Miami really are and how mean they're getting."
A robbery at a Walgreens at West Flagler Street and 27th Avenue led officers to the 2200 block of Northwest 27th Avenue, where the first officer was shot about 5 a.m. Investigators believe the suspect then took off in the officer's marked unit and abandoned it in Hialeah, said Maj. Nancy Perez.
Officers and two suspects then exchanged gunfire at Northwest 64th Street and 26th Avenue (pictured below) -- where the two officers were shot in their arms -- about 6:30 a.m., said Patterson. Dozens of bullets pierced the blue Volvo convertible the men were inside.
"It sounded like World War III out here," said Tracey Addison, who was getting off the MetroRail when she heard gunfire nearby. "They were shooting at the cops and the cops just shot the whole car up."
One of the suspects was killed and the other was transported to Jackson Memorial Hospital, where he died.
"We do believe that the gentleman that was in this car -- one of them -- was the in fact the person who took the police car and shot our officer," said Patterson.
It wasn't known whether both suspects had been at the scene of the first officer's shooting, or if one joined the other after the patrol car was abandoned, said Perez.
Friends identified one of the men as 27-year-old Adrian Montesano (pictured below). The Volvo was registered to his family.
"Any time an officer is assaulted by anybody, that person is dangerous," said Patterson. "To assault our officer -- and then to turn around and shoot our officer and then to flee in our officer's car -- makes this person dangerous."
"If they're brazen enough to shoot at law enforcement, they're brazen [enough] to shoot at anybody," added Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez. "Unfortunately, this is happening with more frequency."
Police haven't identified the officers or the suspects.
The two Miami police officers complaining of ear aches because of their closeness to gunfire during the second shooting were transported to Jackson Memorial Hospital as a precaution, according to a department spokesperson. A fourth officer from the Hialeah Police Department was injured by broken glass.
Police closed Northwest 27th Avenue from 24th Street to 20th Street as they investigated.
The officers were taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital. The first officer was shot in the abdomen and underwent surgery, said Miami-Dade Police Director J.D. Patterson.
"Thank God it was not a life-sustaining organ that was penetrated but he did have some internal injuries," he said.
An armed drugstore robbery and subsequent manhunt left three officers shot and two people dead in Northwest Miami-Dade on Tuesday.
Three Miami-Dade officers struck by gunfire — one in the stomach, two in their arms — were rushed to Jackson Memorial Hospital. They all are expected to survive, as are two officers from Miami and one from Hialeah who suffered other injuries in the violent confrontation that spanned multiple scenes and snarled rush-hour traffic.
The deadly series of events began before dawn, when 27-year-old Adrian Montesano tried to rob a Walgreens near Northwest 27th Avenue and West Flagler Street in Little Havana, according to multiple law enforcement sources and a man who said he was a friend of Montesano’s.
A Miami police union released a security camera image showing Montesano holding a woman at gunpoint in the store, his left forearm around her neck and his right hand holding a handgun to her head.
When police caught up with Montesano near Northwest 27th Avenue and 22nd Street, he allegedly shot in the abdomen an officer who tried to arrest him. Montesano ditched his pickup truck emblazoned with his air-conditioning company's logo, taking the Miami-Dade officer's gun and speeding off in the officer's patrol car, police said.
Police found the injured officer's squad car abandoned in Hialeah about 5:30 a.m. Soon after, Hialeah police spotted Montesano and another person in a blue Volvo near East Sixth Street and 10th Avenue.
Officers pursued the Volvo to Northwest 27th Avenue and 65th Street, where it crashed, wedged between a tree and a utility pole.
As police moved in, officers from multiple departments exchanged gunfire with the people who were in the car. Both of them died, police said. It's unclear who Montesano was with or how they got caught up in the incident.
Dozens of officers from several departments congregated at Ryder Trauma Center on Tuesday to support their injured colleagues. The two officers shot in the arms were treated and released; the third was recovering from surgery.
“He’s in good shape and is going to recover. Thank God it was not a life-sustaining organ that was penetrated,” Miami-Dade Police Director J.D. Patterson said of the officer shot in the abdomen, who several law enforcement sources identified as Saul Rodriguez.
Rodriguez also fell under gunfire from a suspect in a 2011 incident in Northwest Miami-Dade. He was not injured, but his partner was shot in the chest area but survived thanks to a bulletproof vest.
Montesano's record shows one previous run-in with the law: a 2007 arrest in Miami Beach after he cut a fence and drove his truck onto the sand at the 79th Street beach. The truck got stuck, and Montesano was using beach signs to try and create traction for his tires, according to an arrest report.
When Miami Beach officers approached him, Montesano cursed and claimed he had a cousin who was in law enforcement, the report noted. He chuckled when officers ordered him to keep his hands in their sight.
"Defendant was verbally abusive," officers wrote.
Montesano went to Hialeah-Miami Lakes Senior High and was working as an A/C repairman, according to a man at the final shooting scene who declined to give his name. Calling himself a friend of Montesano, the man spoke briefly with reporters before detectives asked to speak with him in private.
Montesano had fallen in with the wrong crowd and had gotten into drugs, the friend said, adding that he tried to rob the Walgreens because he needed money.
“He had an addiction,” Montesano’s friend said. “He was good, he was bad. The last time I spoke to him he was good, you know, he was doing his job, working, what he loved to do. I guess he got with the bad people again and it caused him to do all this.”
Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez spoke with two of the injured county officers at the hospital. He said they were holding up well and said investigators were still putting together the pieces of a bizarre, violent puzzle.
“There seem to be more brazen attacks by people who aren’t right,” Gimenez said. “We need to find out what’s going on. It appears to be ... illogical.”
Miami Herald photojournalist Walter Michot, el Nuevo Herald photojournalist CM Guerrero and news partner CBS4 contributed to this report.
All this for WalGreens money? If you're gonna go out like that, why not do something with alot more to gain.
cops. i give no fukks what happened to these pigs. and fukk the spokesman who said they avoided a tragedy. 