Friend Of Man At Center Of Police Shootout "He Had An Addiction"
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – A man who died in a hail of police gunfire after he allegedly shot a Miami-Dade officer who tried to arrest him for an attempted robbery at a Walgreens was reportedly struggling with drug addiction.
A friend of the man, who did not wish to be named in this report, identified him as 27-year old Adrian Montesano. A separate sources identified the second man killed, who was in the car with Montesano, as Corsini Valdes.
The friend of Montesano said he's known him since 7th grade when they attended Miami Lakes Middle School.
Montesano's friend said he had a drug problem and he thinks he robbed the store because he needed the money.
"He had an addiction. He was good, he was bad. The last time I spoke to him he was good, you know, he was doing his job, working what he loved to do," said the friend. "I guess he got with the bad people again and it caused him to do all this."
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He said Montesano was at an apartment complex on Monday getting drugs and doing drugs and he thinks the people he was with ran out of money. They wanted more drugs.
"They wanted more," he said. "Wanting more causes people to sell something or rob someone. And in this case it must be he robbed someone, he robbed the Walgreens at gunpoint."
From there he thinks Montesano went to where he buys drugs and that's when he was confronted by a Miami-Dade police officer.
"He shot a cop at an apartment complex where he went to pick up more drugs," he said.
Montesano's friend said he knew he had problems, but didn't think it would ever progress into something like this.
"I never thought it would go this far, knowing Adrian, never thought, I didn't think it was that bad," he said.
He said Montesano ran his own air conditioning repair business.
"He has an awesome family. His family loved him," he said.
"We are all in shock as to what happened. The young man had a substance abuse issue but never in a violent nature never anything like this he never had any violation of the law," said Rafael Padron, a family friend of Montesano.
However records check shows that Montesano was previously arrest for criminal mischief on Miami Beach.
After he shot the officer in the abdomen, police said Montesano took off in the officer's cruiser with his gun.
The injured officer was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital by a fellow officer where he underwent surgery. He's expected to make a full recovery. CBS4 news partner The Miami Herald has identified the injured officer as Saul Rodriguez who works the North Side patrol.
An alert was put out and Hialeah police spotted Montesano and another person, who a source identified to CBS4 Tuesday night as 50-year-old Valdes, inside a blue Volvo at SE 6th Street and 10th Avenue. Police suspect Montesano took the car from a relative's home.
Valdes has an extensive criminal history for cocaine and marijuana possession going back at least ten years, also arrests for tresspassing, public intoxication and battery.
His most serious arrest was in October for armed robbery with a deadly weapon. He was arrested on October 7, 2013 but the case was dropped by Rundle's office on November 5, 2013.
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After a brief chase, the Volvo crashed between a utility pole and a tree at NW 27th Avenue and 63rd Street.
As officers converged on the vehicle, there was an exchange of gunfire with the people in the car.
Two Miami-Dade officers were hit in their arms. and a Hialeah officer was injured by broken glass, according to Miami-Dade Police Director J.D. Patterson.
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The injured officers were taken to North Shore Medical Center. The officers who were shot were then taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital. Two Miami police officers who complained of ringing in their ears after the shootout were also taken the hospital as a precaution.
Montesano and the other person in the car were killed.
Police have not released the names of the people in the car. They did, however, confirm that one of the people in the car was the one they were looking for in connection to the earlier shooting and robbery. They did not release any information concerning the second person.
A records check showed that Montesano was previously arrest for criminal mischief on Miami Beach.
This was not the first time Officer Rodriguez, who was listed as stable, was fired on in the line of duty.
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In August, 2001, he and another officer were shot in a confrontation with 32-year-old Catawaba Howard.
At the time, Howard's family said she had psychological issues. They added that she was an eight-year veteran of the Air Force and Army Reserves who recently left the military.
Catawaba, police said, was making threats to herself and others around 3:30 a.m. on Aug. 12th. Someone called 911 and when police arrived at 1015 NW 109th Street, they were confronted by Catawaba who began to fire at them.
Officers William Vazquez and Rodriguez returned fire and she was struck and killed on the scene.
Officer Vazquez, a 15-year veteran of the Miami-Dade PD, was struck once in the chest but his life was saved by his bullet proof vest. He was taken to Memorial West Hospital in stable condition.
