HOMESTEAD, Fla. – An off-duty police officer fatally shot a gunman during a confrontation outside a South Florida supermarket Saturday night in an encounter captured on video.
Cellphone videos posted on Twitter showed the man in the parking lot outside a Publix supermarket in Homestead holding a gun and firing four shots into an SUV that he says is his. Holding the gun in front of him, he told shoppers in the parking lot, “Go home, go home.”
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A Homestead police officer confronted him, pointing his gun at him while taking cover about 30 feet (10 meters) away. The man tried to open the SUV's door and then fired two more shots into it. He then pulled keys from his pocket and tried again to open the door.
“I am going home,” the man yelled at the officer.
“Put the gun down, sir!” the officer yelled.
“You can't hit me from here,” the man replied. “I am not trying to hurt anybody.”
Seconds later, another voice commanded the man to put down the gun. He turned toward it, his gun still in his hand. One shot was fired, hitting him. He fell on his back. The man who fired the shot, dressed in a T-shirt and shorts, came into view, yelling toward the Homestead officer, “I'm a cop, Miami-Dade! Get fire-rescue!”
The Homestead officer approached, his gun pointing at the off-duty officer. The Miami-Dade officer pointed out where the fallen man's gun landed, a few feet away. The Homestead officer, his gun trained on the Miami-Dade officer, ordered him to put his gun down. The officer complied. No one else was injured.
Police said the shooter was the off-duty Miami-Dade officer. Miami-Dade and Homestead police did not immediately return phone calls Sunday from The Associated Press.
Miami-Dade police told the Miami Herald that the man was pronounced dead at a hospital. Police told the paper that a Publix security guard had confronted the man for looking into cars and he pulled a gun. Homestead police were then called.
Miami-Dade said its off-duty officer is a 30-year veteran. His name and the gunman's were not released.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement will investigate the shooting.