Woman armed with knife shot by Miami police, according to her roommate
MIAMI - Miami police shot and killed a woman overnight after she allegedly threatened her roommate with a knife and attacked officers.
Hamid Hamidi, who said he was the woman's roommate, said he called 911 because she was threatening him with a knife. He said she thought he was working with a group of people to go after her and confronted him in his room.
"She was accusing me of all sorts of stuff and then she wanted to, she had a knife and I felt threatened," he said.
Hamidi said she suffers from a mental health issue and this was not the first time it has happened.
When police arrived at their residence at NE 2nd Avenue and 25th Street, Hamidi said they were trying to get both sides of the story when she "charged" them.
"She charged them with a knife, I could see in the shadows," he said. "And that's when they had to defend themselves because they did give her many warnings of you know, stopping, and please do not come forward and all of that, and she regardless just charged at them and she was shot."
"I was watching a movie and I heard like three gunshots. It was like pop, pop, pop," said Aurora Yerich who lives nearby.
"I heard three shots pop off and I came to check it out and I saw mad cops coming down the street," said Gebriel Shanti.
Hamidi said he's now struggling with the decision to call 911 since he normally handled situations like this by himself. He said he questioned what would have happened if he hadn't made the call.
Miami Police Chief Manny Morales told CBS News Miami's Peter D'Oench that three of his officers were inside the apartment trying to de-escalate the situation and he said two of them were forced to fire at the 37-year-old woman when "she threatened them and charged at them with a knife."
He said police were called to the apartment around 10:30 Tuesday night about a female suffering from a "mental health crisis." He said they spoke with her to try to de-escalate the situation.
He said, "The female abruptly got up and armed herself with a knife. At that point, the officers tried to get the female to put the knife down. Multiple attempts were unsuccessful. The female behaved in a threatening manner. At on point she charged the officers with a knife and they discharged their firearms."
Morales said, "The sanctity of life is a central principle to everyone we come in contact with through the Miami Police Department and the loss of life at any level is a tragic incident. I went to the scene last night to speak to the officers and they were visibly shaken. I can tell you our officers were trained to take every action they can to avoid the loss of life."
Morales said the officers for now would be on administrative duties.
The identity of the woman who died has not been released. Her roommate said she had lived in the apartment for less than 6 weeks and he said she was originally from Puerto Rico.
CBS News Miami also spoke with the woman's landlord, Octavio Pino.
He said, "All I know is that she was from Puerto Rico and used to live in Tampa. She seemed like a normal person and was very respectful with me. She always paid her rent. She was very nice and loved to cook. When I heard about this, I was very surprised."
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement has launched an investigation. Per policy, the FDLE takes over an investigation when a law enforcement officer is involved in a shooting.
