A Florida Department of Law Enforcement agent fatally shot a person during an altercation in a southwest Miami-Dade neighborhood Thursday morning, Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office officials said.
Deputies responded to the shooting shortly after 9 a.m. in the area of Southwest 157th Avenue and Southwest 140th Street. Investigators said the agent was inside his vehicle when a person who was standing in the street approached and started hitting the vehicle’s window. The agent exited and there was a physical altercation, and at one point the other person threw the agent to the ground and got on top of him, officials said. The agent then opened fire, shooting the person, the sheriff’s office said.
A Miami Police officer who was in the area and Miami-Dade deputies responded and gave the person lifesaving efforts but they were pronounced dead at the scene. The person’s identity wasn’t released. Miami-Dade Fire Rescue officials said crews responded to a medical call ‘with reports of an assault’ and said one person was taken to the hospital. Their identity and condition weren’t released.
An NBC6 camera captured an injured man with blood on his arms arriving at Jackson South. The incident prompted a large police presence in the neighborhood. Chopper 6 captured video of authorities investigating under a large white tent and showed what is presumed to be the person’s body covered by a yellow tarp underneath the tent. Aerial footage also showed Miami-Dade Sheriff’s deputies collecting what appears to be a gun in a box. Police tape kept neighbors and drivers blocks away from the law enforcement activity.
Julyana Adam, who lives next door, said she was inside her home when she heard a single gunshot. ‘All I hear is help, help, he has a gun,’ Adam said. Adam was inside with her family, including her child. ‘My husband came down with his gun to make sure the scene was safe, but by then someone was on the floor, and that was the scary part,’ Adam said. She soon learned who died. ‘The landlord, he stepped out and said, that’s one of ours, and I was like, that’s my neighbor,’ Adam said. She said her neighborhood is usually quiet. ‘It was scary to hear them arguing in the beginning and to hear someone say, help, help, and I can’t do much but look out the window,’ Adam said. ‘Whatever happened there shouldn’t have escalated to that level.’
Neighboring Jorge Mas Canosa Middle School was locked down due to police activity in the area right before 10 a.m., the school district confirmed. The sheriff’s office’s Homicide Bureau is investigating at the request of FDLE, officials said.
Residents of a southwest Miami-Dade community gave their thoughts after authorities said a man was fatally shot Thursday morning during an altercation with an on-duty Florida Department of Law Enforcement agent. Deputies with the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office said the shooting happened around 9:10 a.m. in the area of the 15700 block of Southwest 140th Street. Investigators said the FDLE agent was inside his vehicle when a man standing in the street approached and began striking the vehicle’s window. They said the agent got out of his car, and an altercation began.
Video obtained by Local 10 News shows a man wearing red, who appears to have a gun in his right hand, being body-slammed onto the pavement by a man wearing black shorts. Investigators said the man who was body-slammed was the FDLE agent. The video shows the two men continuing to struggle before the man who tackled the agent gets on top of him. A gunshot is then heard.
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue crews responded and pronounced the man dead at the scene, according to investigators. They said the FDLE agent was taken to a hospital. The agency said he was placed on administrative leave, as is standard procedure following an officer-involved shooting.
‘I heard some commotion,’ said Julyana Adam, who was in the area when she heard that ‘a single gunshot went off.’ ‘By the time we all made it downstairs, there was somebody laying on the floor,’ she added. ‘He was five steps away from being home and didn’t make it in.’
The man’s death was especially difficult for those who knew him. His roommate and close friend of five years, Mauricio Salinas, identified him as 28-year-old Daniel Shand. However, investigators have not yet publicly identified him. ‘He was nice a good person,’ Salinas said when describing Shand to Local 10 News. ‘I don’t think he deserved what happened to him.’ Salinas said he would often try to keep Shand calm when he became angry and said his friend had been working to improve himself. He said Shand was driving home from the gym in a red Toyota when he got into the altercation with the FDLE agent. ‘I don’t know why the altercation happened. All I know is (when) I came out, he was already gone,’ he said. ‘I think he was a person that was looking for redemption. (To) do better than he was yesterday.’
Deputies spent much of Thursday investigating the area. A body covered by a tarp could be seen in the roadway as investigators processed the scene. A nearby school, Jorge Mas Canosa Middle School, was temporarily placed on lockdown because of what Miami-Dade County Public Schools described as ‘non-school related police activity in the area.’ The lockdown was later lifted. Authorities have not released additional details about what led to the confrontation.
