2 Miami-Dade Police officers injured by man with knife, suspect in custody
MIAMI –Sylvester Thomas is now facing murder charges for attempted murder against a law enforcement officer.
It happened overnight in the area of 300 NW 157 Street, near the Golden Glades.
Miami-Dade Police said units responded in reference to a subject making threats with a knife. Upon arrival, officers were confronted by an armed adult male subject and two officers were injured.
"I feel so sorry for the officers that he stabbed, it breaks my heart to see what he did," said Gwendolyn, the homeowner who made the call for help.
One officer sustained a laceration to the right side of her neck and arm and was transported to Ryder Trauma by MDFR Air in stable condition.
The second officer sustained a laceration to his left arm and was transported to Ryder Trauma by MDFR in stable condition.
The two officers are expected to make a full recovery.
In the meantime, the 51-year-old Thomas has been booked into jail.
This comes as all a shock for Gwendolyn who was trying to help Thomas out, a man she says she's known for 20 years, but things had recently taken a turn.
"Three days back he had been talking to himself, I thought he was on the phone so I said to my sister, how can he be on the phone for two days straight to someone, there must be something wrong, so we figured he was losing his head," Gwendolyn told CBS4.
Then just before 1 a.m. Wednesday, things got to a point where she felt she needed emergency intervention.
"He kept saying I'm going to kill everybody, so we figured he was going off his head," she said.
She then told CBS4, she locked the doors and called the police. When two Miami-Dade Police officers arrived, she ran out of the house with her sister.
"When the police came, we told them to be careful."
Gwendolyn recalled the officers initially were trying to talk to the man, asking him questions.
"When I gave them the key to open the door, he stabbed the police officer in her neck, and he stabbed the other police in his hand."
She didn't know right away what exactly happened, but it sounded like the officers were in trouble.
"When I heard the shoutout I said something must be wrong, and I said they need assistance, come fast come fast then all the cops just came."
Gwendolyn believes she was spared from being stabbed thanks to the officers' actions, she is grateful for what they did, and for relieving her from in her words, a "terror."
