Video that investigators say shows someone tampering with a key piece of evidence in an alleged road rage shooting involving a South Florida police officer was released Tuesday.
Miami-Dade Police officer Jonathan Lang faces a charge of discharging a firearm from a vehicle as well as aggravated assault with a firearm and tampering with physical evidence related to the July 2014 incident.
Lang was off-duty and driving on the Florida's Turnpike when authorities say he fired a weapon into a vehicle driven by a Miami-Dade Corrections worker.
The Florida Highway Patrol trooper investigating the incident believes there was an effort to hide the gun allegedly used.
In the surveillance video, first obtained by NBC 6, a white Mazda SUV that authorities say was being driven by Lang arrives at an tow truck lot in South Miami-Dade just two hours and 35 minutes after Lang signed a document giving the investigating FHP sergeant the legal consent to search the vehicle.
And just 11 minutes later, a man wearing a baseball cap shows up and the lights flash on the car. FHP officials said it indicates he had the remote, and he quickly opens the passenger door, grabs something and exits.
The FHP trooper wrote in his request for a search warrant: "The unidentified subject removed an unknown item...and ran east bound through the...parking lot. There is reasonable evidence the vehicle was accessed by persons known to Mr. Lang."
The FHP officer believes the property taken from the vehicle was the firearm and it was returned to Lang in order to conceal the evidence, the request reads.
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When the investigating trooper did get the warrant to return to the car his records show he found ammunition but no weapon.
While the photos show pictures of weapons from Lang's cellphone obtained in a search warrant for his house, once inside troopers receipts show there were weapons but not the elusive one, the one FHP believes was taken from the SUV at his moment we can now see.
And FHP officials on Tuesday said the weapon has never been located. Lang was placed on administrative leave. He's presumed innocent on all these charges. NBC 6 reached out to his attorney Tuesday to see what he had to say about this but didn't hear back. The corrections officer is also suing him.
