Witnesses: Turnpike Shooting Was Like A Movie
MIAMI (CBS4) - Hector Lopez says he will never forget the images of the gunman who went on a shooting spree on the Florida Turnpike, wounding two police officers.
Lopez told CBS4's Peter D'Oench, "I heard shots of pop, pop and I told my friend that someone got shot."
Lopez immediately pulled out his cell phone and start taking video.
"My friend told me to put down the phone because you are going to get killed," said Lopez from his condominium in Plantation.
The cell phone camera shows the gunman---23-year-old David Bradley of Miami Gardens---dressed all in black and walking down the median of the Florida Turnpike just south of the Hollywood Boulevard exit and holding a high-powered weapon in his right hand.
"I've got the guy walking with a gun walking just two feet from my car," said Lopez. "I told my friend that when I saw that I thought he had shot somebody."
"I was on the highway because I do air conditioning and appliance repair work and I was on a business call and I saw him walking forward and I saw this man with a big gun and I had to take the pictures," said Lopez.
"I feel bad about the officers who were shot," Lopez said.
Former University of Miami and Miami Dolphins football player Twan Russell was also in traffic when the shooting happened and saw the gunman.
"He looked very calm and he didn't look like he was stressed," said Russell. "He was just kind of jogging down the street and if he didn't have a gun in his hand, I wouldn't have thought twice about it."
"It was almost like sitting there in an episode from 'Miami Vice.' It was like being in a movie," Russell said.
"We're sitting there for 5 minutes and all of a sudden we see this guy in black dreads on what seemed like a foot-long gun with a clip on it," said Russell. "And he's just jogging between cars and making eye contact with every person he is jogging by."
Russell told D'Oench that anyone could have been a victim on that Thursday afternoon.
"You know what, he could have shot anyone," said Russell. "It could have been anyone in the road. There were thousands of people out on the highway in gridlock and waiting."
Miami Marlins catcher Brett Hayes was also in traffic during the shooting.
"He went right by and he was making eye contact with everyone and it was obvious that he was up to no good," said Hayes. "It was kind of creepy. He was looking at everyone."
The incident came to an end when Bradley took his own life.
The witnesses said they will remember the disturbing images from the Florida Turnpike for a long time.
They say they feel terrible about what happened the officers who were wounded and offer their prayers.
"Then there was the officer who took the wounded officer to the hospital in his own car to get her help sooner," said Hayes. "That was a great thing that he did."
"It's amazing what these officers do," said Hayes. "I've seen what they do."
