Details emerged on Wednesday of what led to a high-speed chase and fatal police-involved shooting in southwest Miami-Dade County.
Gristoval Aviles, 31, was killed in the shooting, while his brother Ricardo, 30, was rushed to the hospital in critical condition, Miami-Dade Police said. Another man connected to the case, Miguel Angel Aquino, was also arrested, authorities said.
Officials said Ricardo Aviles, from the Homestead area, had been under investigation by several federal and local law enforcement agencies before the deadly confrontation Tuesday afternoon.
Miami-Dade Police were helping the Drug Enforcement Administration try to apprehend him near Southwest 228th Street and 157th Avenue when he sped off, leading authorities on a chase along U.S. 1. His pickup truck crashed around U.S. 1 and Card Sound Road, rolling over several times. At some point authorities fired, killing Gristoval and wounding Ricardo.
Ricardo was in stable condition and was in federal custody Wednesday, authorities said.
Ricardo’s wife, Cathy Sanchez, told NBC Miami that her husband was not in the drug business. She said he worked as a tree trimmer.
“He would get up every day at 5 o’clock in the morning and they would come right here to work and get off at 6 o’clock. That was work, real work,” she said.
She said she doesn’t understand why her husband was the focus of a DEA investigation.
“I just know he is a good man. He’s not in the drug business … I’ve always been with him. He’s not like that,” said Ricardo’s son-in-law Omar Guiterez.
According to the affidavit, in October a confidential source told DEA agents that Aviles wanted to sell him distribution quantities of cocaine. So, the source met with Aviles several times and purchased cocaine and weapons, the affidavit said. Authorities say they also have recorded conversations between them.
On Tuesday, after a recorded call about buying cocaine and an AK-47 with the source, agents saw Aviles walk out of Aquino’s house with a long-gun case, which was consistent with an AK-47, the affidavit said. When he left, agents tried to stop him, but he rammed his car into a law enforcement vehicle and engaged in the high-speed chase, the affidavit said. Authorities say they found an AK-47 in his car.
Agents also searched Aquino’s house and found multiple firearms, a suspected grenade launcher, silencers, and other weapons, the affidavit said. None of these weapons were registered, according to preliminary findings, the affidavit said.
Neither man has a license for the distribution of firearms, the affidavit said.
The affdavit also said that Aviles is a convicted felon and has a larceny conviction from July 1999. He was also arrested on a felony charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm in September 2011. He is currently on bond on these charges.
The DEA said an investigation into the brothers is ongoing, and is part of a drug enforcement operation.
