A suspect was killed in a police-involved shooting involving a Florida Highway Patrol motorcycle trooper in Miami Gardens Wednesday morning, officials said.
The shooting was reported in the area of Northwest 169th Street and Northwest 37th Avenue in Miami Gardens just after 11:00 a.m.
Trooper Joe Sanchez said a trooper approached a car at a stop light for an unspecified traffic stop.
Surveillance video from a nearby gas station showed the driver of the car attempt to drive away. The trooper jumped on the hood of the car and fired his gun at the driver.
The video shows the car drive away as the trooper jumps off the car.
“The trooper ends up on the hood, the trooper fears for his life, he fires into the vehicle as the vehicle makes a u-turn and flees northbound,” Sanchez explained.
Sanchez added the driver crashed his car about one mile north of the shooting location.
Paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene.
Sanchez said the driver had a female passenger in his car. She is in good condition.
“It sounded like a big grenade went off, scared me,” explained Travis Delaney, who lives near where the crash happened.
Another neighbor added she saw gunshot wounds on the driver of the car.
“I saw where he had a hole in his chest and two in his arm,” said Keloria Crooks.
Sanchez said the victim did not shoot at the trooper. He added investigators are working to find out if he had a gun.
But Sanchez said these are the risks troopers face on a daily basis.
“It goes to show you our job is a dangerous job, we go out there every day and we put our lives in danger,” he said.
Authorities have not named the trooper involved, or the man who died.
That trooper is on paid administrative leave; which is standard protocol.
Investigators from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement are taking over this investigation, which is also standard protocol for a shooting involving a trooper.