Police shoot man on Ocean Drive amid tensions with spring breakers in South Beach

Miami Beach police shot and wounded a man during a confrontation on South Beach’s Ocean Drive on Saturday night, sources familiar with the incident said.

The sound of gunshots led hundreds of spring breakers to sprint in unison down Ocean Drive, some hopping fences into private venues like Mango’s Tropical Cafe, where security intervened.

The wounded man, identified by a source as 22-year-old Jonathan Hall, of Georgia, remained in critical condition on Sunday.

Saturday’s shooting comes amid a tense weekend on Miami Beach, where black leaders have complained that police have been overly aggressive, dressed in military gear and freely firing pepper spray at people.

Miami Beach officers got into several altercations with spring breakers when cops tackled one person, punched two others and grabbed a young woman by the throat when she had fallen onto Ocean Drive following a collision with an officer, according to video posted on social media. The NAACP condemned the police actions as “racist.”

Saturday’s incident unfolded at about 8:30 p.m. at the bar-restaurant at the Barbizon hotel, 530 Ocean Drive.

According to a law-enforcement source, a bartender spotted Hall with a gun in his waistband. A manager flagged down Miami Beach officers outside.

A confrontation ensued inside the lobby, where the man was shot. Three Miami Beach police officers opened fire, the source said.

The Miami Beach police union president said Sunday that the man did not comply with officers’ commands and took an “overt act” that forced them fire. He did not elaborate.

“The bottom line is that if you come out here and you have a gun and you don’t comply with officers’ commands, they are going to be forced to take action to safeguard themselves and the public,” Millan said.

No officers were injured. Multiple sources said the man’s gun was found on the scene.

Michael Swanberg was relaxing in his hotel room at the Barbizon when he heard the gunshots.

“I was chilling watching a movie and heard ‘bang bang bang,’” Swanberg said.

He looked outside and saw people at Jalapeño Mexican Kitchen, which is right below the hotel, flipping tables over trying to run away.

“Dozens of cops and a SWAT team came in instantly,” Swanberg said.

In video captured by Swanberg, police and paramedics are seen pushing a man out of the restaurant below on a gurney.

The shooting caused police to briefly shut down MacArthur Causeway, one of the main arteries connecting mainland Miami-Dade County to the island city, after officers received “several priority calls,” Miami Beach police tweeted. During spring break, police are using license-plate readers on the causeway to make arrests.

“It has since reopened,” the department said.

The shooting comes during what city leaders expected to be the busiest weekend for spring break, with St. Patrick’s Day coming up on Tuesday.

The city’s resources are challenged every year by hordes of spring breakers convening on Ocean Drive, which closed to traffic on Thursday. But with fears of a coronavirus outbreak in South Florida, and major universities instructing students to head home, Mayor Dan Gelber said it appeared that South Beach had become even busier in recent days.

“Now that there’s no school and every college has made this decision, we’re now in a position that frankly is going to be very challenging,” he said earlier on Saturday. “Unfortunately, they are a group that doesn’t feel as threatened [by coronavirus] as our seniors, who are listening to our directions conscientiously.”

The City of Miami Beach moved on Saturday to crack down on spring breakers in South Beach by enacting an emergency directive shutting down three blocks of public beach on Ocean Drive daily after 4:30 p.m., prohibiting large gatherings on Lummus Park and allowing vehicular traffic along Ocean Drive.

Those closures were ordered by City Manager Jimmy Morales in an attempt to limit large gatherings, a plan that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said can help mitigate the possible spread of coronavirus.

The stretch of beach from Seventh to 10th streets will be closed in the late afternoon for the foreseeable future. Morales’ emergency powers, which he invoked during a state of emergency declaration Thursday, will last until March 19 after the City Commission voted to extend them from the usual 72 hours to a full week.

“We’re hoping that people go to their rooms and go home,” Gelber said. “We don’t want this crowd here for spring break. We don’t want them.”