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Miami Beach police identify slain suspect

Posted at 6:49 PM, Dec 06, 2015
and last updated 2015-12-06 18:49:07-05

Miami Beach Police have identified a bank robbery suspect who they say was wielding a razor when he was shot and killed by an officer on Alton Road.

David W. Winesett, 51, was serving a sentence for multiple bank robberies the Riverside Christian Ministries halfway house in Little Havana and was in the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons when he escaped Saturday, police said.

Winesett then tried to rob the Bank of America at 1414 Alton Road, passing a note that claimed he had a bomb, authorities said.

By the time officers responded, Winesett had fled the scene without taking money, authorities said. He went into a barbershop about a block from the bank and refused to come out, police said.

When Winesett finally came out of the barbershop, he had removed his shirt and was holding a straight-edged razor, police said. An officer fired shots during the confrontation and Winesett was killed at the scene.

A bystander posted footage of the incident to the photo-sharing app Instagram, which shows officers surrounding the man, who is then shot and falls to the ground.

"I know that there are videos out there in the media. If you slow those videos down carefully, you will see that the weapon is raised at the moment at which the shot takes place," Miami Beach Police Chief Daniel Oates said.

Winesett was completing a 151-month sentence plus three years of probation and had been relocated to the halfway house two days before the attempted robbery, police said.

Police said Winesett's criminal history is extensive and includes arrests for theft and extortion in addition to bank robberies in 1997 and 2002 in Florida.

Miami-Dade County Police are investigating the shooting and the FBI and Miami Beach police are investigating the bank robbery, officials said.

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Courtesy of our news partners at NBCMiami.com.