Man Injured In NW Miami-Dade Police Involved Shooting
MIAMI (CBSMiami) - A man was injured in a police-involved shooting in northwest Miami-Dade.
The shooting happened just after 2 a.m. in the area at 127th Street and NW 19th Avenue.
An off-duty Miami police officer was dropping off a woman at a house when they were confronted by a man.
"As she approached the door a male answered. She was involved in a verbal altercation with him. That male then approached the officer's vehicle and has another verbal altercation with the officer and at that point that's when shots were fired," said Miami-Dade police Detective Argemis Colome.
The officer and the woman left the house separately. She went to a police station to report the shooting, the officer drove to a North Miami neighborhood where he called 911.
The injured man, identified as 29-year-old Antwan Brown, was taken to Jackson Memorial's Ryder Trauma Center where he was listed in critical but stable condition.
Brown's family said it was a love triangle gone bad. They said the woman, who they identified as 19-year-old Diamond Watts, and Brown had been dating for the last few months.
"He did nothin' to get him shot," said Tara Brown.
Brown, who said she was a cousin of Antwan Brown, said the officer was Watt's ex-boyfriend.
"If you want a new relationship you shouldn't even communicate with your ex, period," she said.
Brown said her cousin was shot in front of a house where he lives with his grandmother. Watts didn't live there.
"He was in front of his house. For one it's two o'clock in the morning, if you and your girlfriend are outside your ex shouldn't even pull up. "Him and Diamond have been in a relationship since October 2018 and to my knowledge they still was together."
Brown said the officer and Watts, "need to go to jail and they need to stay away from each other."
CBS4 was at Diamond Watts's home in Northwest Miami-Dade just before noon Friday when Miami-Dade police officers arrived and a white Toyota Camry was towed from the scene. Police could only say that that car was part of the investigation.
Neighbor Steve Beaubrun told CBS4's Peter D'Oench "I was up watching TV and I saw that car come here just after 2 a.m. and that car at one point was flying. This was really weird. I don't know if that was her car or not."
Thomas Reyes, a spokesman for the Miami Police union, the Fraternal Order of Police, tells CBS4 that the officer is 20 years old and has been with the department for a year. He says the officer was "the victim of an armed assault involving a firearm. He responded with the necessary force to protect himself."
Miami Police said they could not comment about the officer who has not been identified.
