A Miami-Dade Police detective shot and killed a stolen car suspect after he opened fire on the officer in Miami Tuesday night, police said.
The shooting happened around 10 p.m. in the area of Northwest 33rd St. and 8th Ave.
Police say the officer, a member of the Robbery Intervention Detail, spotted the man erratically driving a car with a stolen tag and pulled him over. At that point they say the driver got out of the car with an assault rifle and began firing at the detective.
The Miami-Dade detective returned fire, hitting the man, who was rushed to Jackson Memorial Hospital's Ryder Trauma Center where he later died.
The man was later identified as 24-year-old Jamal Singletary. Court records show Singletary has an extensive criminal record, with arrests for felony firearms possession, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, cocaine possession and trespassing.
No officers were injured in the shooting.
"This is someone who certainly appears from everything we know was willing to use ultimate violence in order to effect an alternate escape and that didn't happen and just thank God our person's fine," said Miami-Dade Police Director James Loftus, who went to the scene of the shooting. "It appears, you know, looking at the physical evidence and the testimony so far, we had a shooting victim and a police officer probably standing within 20 feet of each other exchanging gunfire."
