Miami-Dade Narcotics Unit Officer Shot in Southwest Dade: Police

The shooting happened at Coral Way and SW 57th Avenue, police said

One officer from the Miami-Dade Narcotics Unit was shot in southwest Miami-Dade and police returned fire and killed the shooter Tuesday, police said.

Multiple officers went to a house on a tip that authorities received about drug activity. As they approached the home, one man was walking out, and that is when another man in a car started shooting at them, police said.

The officers shot back and killed the man, and the injured officer was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital's Ryder Trauma Center where he was operated on Tuesday night, police said.

The officer was shot several times in the abdomen, and is in stable condition now that he's out of surgery, Miami-Dade Police spokesman Roy Rutland said.

The officer was taken by air to Ryder Trauma Center by Miami-Dade Fire Rescue. He was alert when he arrived at the hospital at about 7:30 p.m.

"He was conscious, he was talking to family members. He spoke to his wife on the phone, and we had a chance to talk to him briefly. So he did appear to be stable," Rutland said.

Police said previously they were responding to a shooting at Coral Way and SW 57th Avenue.

They set up a command post nearby, and a SWAT team along with the FBI were on the scene.

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Both the suspect who was killed and the man who was walking out of the home are Hispanic males in their 50s, according to police. The second individual was taken into custody and police are interviewing him, they said.

Police said they are not looking for other suspects at this time.

The investigation around the home continued early Wednesday. Some streets were still blocked off.

Police would not say whether the injured officer was wearing a vest or not.

More than 100 officers gathered at the hospital Tuesday night. Inside Ryder's waiting area, there was a palpable sense of relief over the news that the shot officer is expected to survive.

Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez was in the waiting area along with Jackson Health System's CEO, Carlos Migoya.

"It always depends with these kinds of injuries," said Dr. Marc Grossman of Miami-Dade Fire Rescue, who was one of the first doctors to talk with the officer just after he got out of surgery. "I mean you can get shot in the stomach and it just pierces the skin and there's nothing really wrong, but everybody who gets shot in the stomach like that has to go to the operating room, it's like a protocol, just to make sure no major organs were damaged."

County Commission Chairman Joe Martinez spoke with reporters at the scene just after doctors spoke to the officer's family and mentioned the extent of his injuries.

"But one thing they did say is he will be fine. Everything will be fine. All the holes, they’re being sutured up, and he’ll be great," Martinez said.

He said that police are outnumbered and outgunned.

“I do know we don’t have enough officers on the street. They do the best they can. We don’t have enough to patrol," said Martinez, who was a police officer for 17 years, and worked in the same narcotics unit in the 1980s and 1990s.

He is running against Gimenez in the August mayoral election.

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