SOUTHWEST MIAMI-DADE, FLA. (WSVN) – A Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office deputy was forced to open fire inside of a Southwest Miami-Dade home, fatally striking a man while deputies were conducting a search warrant that led them to take another person into custody, authorities said.
7News cameras captured a heavy presence from MDSO deputies and the department’s Special Response Team in the area of Southwest 155th Street and 102nd Place in the Palmetto Estates neighborhood, just after 9 a.m. on Tuesday.
According to Miami-Dade Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz, SRT units were serving a search warrant at a home that stems from a years-long investigation led by the Internet Crimes Against Children Unit, which is focused on individuals suspected or viewing and distributing child pornography.
“In this particular case, an over one-year investigation where the victims of child pornography and sexual abuse ranged from the ages of infancy to 6 years of age,” said Cordero-Stutz.
When they got to the home, deputies said, officials announced their arrival multiple times but nobody from inside the home responded. This led deputies to breach the home’s front door.
When they did that, they made contact with two adults and a child who were safely removed from the home.
But moments later, the sheriff said, the situation turned deadly.
“At which point, a subject, armed, came to the door and confronted our deputies,” said Cordero-Stutz.
After the man refused to comply with deputies who asked him to drop the weapon, at least one deputy opened fire, striking the individual, investigators said.
First responders rendered aid to the man.
“That individual succumbed [to his injuries] on the scene and passed away,” said Cordero-Stutz.
It remains unclear whether or not the subject fired his weapon at the deputies or how many deputies discharged their firearms.
Investigators said deputies located the target of the search warrant — the person accused of child porn offenses — and took them into custody.
“The search warrant for the ICAC was for one individual who is the one that is currently in custody,” said Cordero-Stutz.
This individual’s relationship to the armed subject is unknown.
In the middle of the chaos, a distraught woman told 7News in Spanish that she received a call from her son telling her to rush home from work because deputies entered the residence and shot her stepson. However, detectives have yet to confirm this account or specify how this woman and the subject who was shot are related.
While they conducted their investigation, Cordero-Stutz said their focus remains in safety and transparency.
“I ask the community that, if you have evidence, if you see something, this kind of a crime, the most heinous crime you can imagine — again, I mention this victims are between infants to 6 years of age — please let is know,” she said. “You can report it even through Crime Stoppers. That allows the opportunity to protect these innocent victims and not allow [these subjects] to have more victims.”
As of Tuesday afternoon, the identities of the deceased person and the man in custody has not been released.
Because this was a deputy-involved shooting, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement has taken over part of the investigation.
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