A lawyer for the suspect who was shot by Miami-Dade Police earlier this week spoke out on Thursday. The shooting happened Monday night near Northwest 27th Avenue and 90th Street.
"The bullet went through his shoulder and it's currently lodged inside his chest," said Judd Rosen, suspect's lawyer.
That injury occurred after Francisco Perez Trejo had a confrontation with police. His lawyers showed pictures of their client who's in critical but stable condition at Ryder Trauma.
"He's in excruciating pain and under heavy medication," Rosen said.
The 44-year-old who recently arrived from Cuba eight months ago was shot by police Monday night. His attorneys are arguing that it wasn't justified.
"We're here to report to the people of this community that there's an innocent man who's been shot and he's currently shackled to a hospital bed at Jackson Hospital," Rosen said.
Miami-Dade Police have a different version of events. Investigators said a plainclothes officer signaled for Perez Trejo to stop after a traffic violation, but then it escalated. Perez Trejo didn't listen and kept going, even trying to run over the officer.
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"The vehicle refused to stop. The driver began making abrupt movements inside the vehicle as if he was reaching for something," said Jennifer Capote with MDPD.
Police stressed that the officer did everything in his power to let the suspect know that he was a cop, showing his badge and giving verbal commands but the man did not comply, forcing the detective to shoot.
"They came up on a suspicious vehicle and things turned bad very quickly and we're talking about less than a second," said PBA President John Rivera.
But Perez Trejo's attorneys say that never happened.
"It is a complete falsehood that this gentlemen was ever reaching for anything. He was unarmed. He was not reaching for anything and there was no reasonable basis to shoot him," Rosen said.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is now investigating.
