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Police Investigate Shooting Involving Retired BSO Deputy

MIAMI LAKES (CBS4)- Police are investigating a shooting in Miami Lakes outside a Haagen Dazs ice cream shop which involved a retired BSO deputy.

According to CBS4's Evan Bacon, retired BSO deputy Maury Hernandez opened fire on a man who attempted to assault his family Saturday afternoon at a shopping center at 16403 NW 67th Avenue.

Hernandez, who made headlines in South Florida when he was shot in the head a few years ago during a traffic stop, was having lunch with his fiancée, mother and children, including two kids and a baby. Shortly after, the family was at the ice cream store when the man began "bothering" Hernandez and his family and started swinging at the officer.

But when the man started to make contact with Hernandez's children, Hernandez physically made contact with the man.

"There was a verbal dispute and he was being aggressive," detective Alvaro Zabaleta with the Miami-Dade Police Department said. "He began to escalate at that point and swing at the victim (Hernandez)."

According to police, the man continued his actions and the officer fired his registered gun multiple times at the man.

"It was an individual…a dark-skinned male, possibly mulatto, 33-years of age that was inside the commercial establishment bothering patrons," Zabaleta said.

The man was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital.

But questions remained as to why a former deputy used what could have been deadly force against an unarmed man.

"If you do carry a firearm on you, and you are permitted to then you are allowed to you it if in fact you feel that your life is in danger," Zabaleta said.

Hernandez was featured in a story on CBS4 back in December 2010. He was shot in the head on the job while going after a suspect in Pembroke Park in August of 2007 when he was 28-year-old. Read more here.

Hernandez spent days in a coma and months in the hospital after his shooting in 2007.

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