Florida police say officer ambushed in patrol car shooting

By Letitia Stein

TAMPA, Fla. (Reuters) - A gunman shot and wounded a Florida police officer in a parked patrol vehicle on Friday in an ambush-style attack, said the Miami Gardens Police Department, which apprehended the suspect.

Around 8:30 a.m., Officer David Starling noticed a black BMW sports utility vehicle driving past him, police said. After making eye contact with the officer, the driver backed up next to him, pulled out a handgun and opened up fire.

"The officer was ambushed," Police Chief Antonio Brooklen told reporters.

Starling was shot one time around the buttocks, sustaining nonlife-threatening injuries, police said. Multiple gunshots struck his vehicle, shooting out the windows on the driver's side.

Miami Gardens police said the alleged gunman, 24-year-old David Andres Mejia, apparently wanted to harm a police officer.

"There is no indication or nexus to terrorism," police said in a statement. The FBI office in Miami offered to assist with the investigation, the agency noted.

The incident comes two weeks after a gunman claiming allegiance to Islamic State militants shot and wounded a police officer in Philadelphia, according to authorities there, who also described the shooting as an ambush.

In the Miami Gardens shooting, Mejia fired additional rounds at other officers chasing him as he fled, then crashed his vehicle. He tried to run away, but was taken into custody.

Mejia faces five counts of attempted murder of a police officer, along with charges including resisting arrest with violence, aggravated fleeing and eluding, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

"To attempt to assassinate a police officer who is paid to protect and serve, there is no justification for it," Brooklen said at a news conference.

(Editing by Matthew Lewis and Sandra Maler)