HALLANDALE BEACH, FLA. (WSVN) - A police-involved shooting in Hallandale Beach that sent a man to the hospital led to a close call for a visiting family when, they said, a bullet flew into their condo and inside their baby’s room.
The visitors, who are in South Florida on vacation, said they were having breakfast when they were startled by the bullet, Monday morning.
“A bullet hit the wall behind me while I was standing just making breakfast,” said one of the family members, who identified herself as Laurie.
Thankfully, Laurie said, their baby woke up early. If not, they would have been in the room where the bullet entered the unit, located near Northeast 10th Street and 12th Avenue.
“If she would have woken up at 7 o’clock when the gunfire happened, I probably would have been there changing her diaper and being hit by the bullet,” she said.
7SkyForce HD flew over the scene where several Hallandale Beach officers could be seen outside a home blocked off with crime scene tape.
Officers responded to the neighborhood at around 7 a.m. after receiving reports that there was a body in a yard.
“Dispatch received a call from an unknown caller stating that there was a dead body in the yard,” said Hallandale Beach Police Captain Ra Shana Dabney-Donovan.
Responding officers searched the area and were not able to locate a body, but they spotted a man who was slumped over a garbage can.
As the officers got closer, police said, the man pulled out a weapon.
“This male did have a weapon. The officer was forced to fire, and the male was transported to a local hospital,” said Dabney-Donovan.
An area resident said he heard several gunshots in the normally quiet neighborhood.
“Just two shots, just two, one after the other, like either a big shotgun or a higher-caliber pistol,” he said. “Like ‘pop, pop,’ but big guns.”
Cellphone video captured officers rendering aid to the subject as he lay on the grass.
Paramedics transported the man in unknown condition.
“I never thought this was going to happen [on] this street,” said the area resident.
Detectives are also investigating what appears to be a bullet hole through a window behind the building.
“It was pretty scary. We didn’t know at first that the bullet hit inside of the house,” said Laurie, “but we found out pretty soon when I saw the hole in the wall.”
“The police are there taking the bullet out of the wall,” said area resident Denis Auclair.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the shooting.
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