CORAL GABLES, FLA. (WSVN) - Gunfire tore through a Coral Gables neighborhood on Thanksgiving weekend, leaving a subject dead and an officer injured in what investigators described as a police-involved shooting.
Coral Gables Police said they received a phone call regarding individuals attempting to break into vehicles near the 100 block of Calabria Avenue, near East Ponce de Leon Boulevard, early Sunday morning.
Coral Gables Police Chief Edward Hudak described what the first responding officer found.
“Upon arriving, our officer saw an individual actually breaking into a vehicle with the door open and the hood up,” he said.
Hudak did not specify what happened after officers confronted the subject but did confirm the law enforcers opened fire.
“Upon engaging with the individuals, the first arriving officers and the second arriving officers discharged their firearms and attempted to protect their lives,” he said.
The gunshots were a rude awakening for area residents.
“We were sleeping, and suddenly we heard like 20 gunshots,” said a neighbor.
The shots went right through a U-Haul pickup truck.
Cameras showed the U-Haul truck covered with a yellow tarp.
“At this point, we have one subject who is deceased and another in custody,” said Hudak.
According to police, the surviving subject has an extensive criminal past.
“It’s a very secure neighborhood. You don’t expect that here,” said an area resident.
The first officer was injured and transported to the hospital in stable condition. No other officers were injured.
The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office is reviewing the officers’ actions as well the subjects’ actions.
The other individual has not been identified yet.
Neighbors who live just feet from where the shots rang out said they are just thankful those bullets didn’t fly through their home.
“That was my main concern, that I have the baby, and I have windows, and you know what can happen to you, your kid, or your wife, and so, it’s pretty scary,” said an area resident.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the incident.
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