Hialeah Police Open Fire On SUV During Traffic Stop
HIALEAH (CBS) – Residents are recovering from some tense moments outside their apartment complex after it was riddled with bullets as police were forced to open on an SUV during a traffic stop.
Sixty-nine-year-old Jose Blanco told CBS4's Peter D'Oench that he was "ok" after a bullet went through his window and hit a wall. "Thank God he was not hurt," said Blanco's friend and neighbor Myra Dominguez. "He was outside and not in the kitchen where the bullet entered. I'm shocked. I'm surprised. This was very scary."
Two other apartment dwellers became victims when their cars were nearly demolished when the suspect's vehicle rammed their cars and also hit a police cruiser.
"Yesterday, the night was a big bad moment," said 68-year-old Flora Velasco. "At the moment it happened I thought, what happened. In front of my apartment, I heard a big boom, boom, boom. My car was under another car. I was very nervous."
"It's no good, no good," said 73-year-old Enrique Cruz. "Take a look at my car." He pointed at his smashed white van and told D'Oench, "Today, I don't work in an hour. I don't have a car."
It all happened around 9:30 p.m. Wednesday night outside Roy's Apartment Complex at West 12th Avenue and 29th Street.
Police say they had received a report that the two men inside a white Escalade were going to commit an armed robbery during a home invasion.
Hialeah Police spokesman Eddie Rodriguez said officers began looking for the men and when they spotted their SUV, they tried to stop it but the driver of that vehicle rammed several cars, including the police cruiser.
"Hialeah Police in fear for their lives were forced to open fire," said Police Chief Mark Overton . "The subjects were violently fleeing and were ramming vehicles."
Rodriguez said that's when officers opened fire on the SUV, injuring the two men inside. They were taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital. Their conditions were not available.
CBS4 discovered both men have records. The passenger, 24-year-old Elvis Abreu, was just arrested on June 16th for battery on a Police officer. He's also been arrested for burglary of an unoccupied dwelling and possession of cocaine.
The driver of the vehicle, 23-year-old Dwight Charles Patterson, has been arrested for selling a controlled substance near a school and credit card fraud, according to a records check.
Late Thursday, Hialeah Police confirmed that two guns were found inside the Escalade.
Hialeah Police detective Carl Zogby told D'Oench that Patterson will be charged with aggravated assault with a vehicle and the attempted murder of a Police officer. Charges are pending against Abreu. Zogby also said Patterson's vehicle was being checked for weapons and drugs.
Rodriguez also said the officer in this case would not be identified but he was treated and released from a local hospital and will be ok.
"Thankfully no civilians were hurt and no police officers were hurt except for the one police officer with some minor injuries as a result of the accident," said Overton.
"Here once again we have a situation where Police officers are risking their own lives knowing that if they didn't, citizens would get hurt and possibly killed," said a concerned John Rivera, President of the Miami-Dade Police Benevolent Association.
The head of the police union expressed his concerns at the crime scene Wednesday night, saying "Crime is on the rise and we all need to watch out for each other and be careful.
