Two Miami-Dade cops injured in shootout with squatter at South Dade home. Gunman killed

Two Miami-Dade police officers trying to clear a Redland home of squatters were shot and injured Wednesday night after knocking on the door, police and sources said. A third officer, a female, was taken to the hospital as a precaution when blood was spotted on her.

The gunman, who hasn’t been named, was shot and killed when police returned fire. It wasn’t immediately clear how many officers fired their weapons. The two officers were shot in the arm and upper body areas, police said.

Two officers were released from the hospital Thursday, while the third remains in stable condition.

Police said the three officers were wearing protective vests that likely protected at least one of them. That’s because a fragment of buckshot fired from a shotgun at them struck a police body camera that would have been worn near the center of his body.

“This type of violence toward the officers will not be tolerated,” Miami-Dade Police Director Stephanie Daniels said in a prepared statement. “By the Grace of God, they are alive today.”

Steadman Stahl, president of the South Florida Police Benevolent Association, said the protective vests might have saved a life and called it a shaky way to begin 2024.

“The vest definitely made a huge difference in what could have been a terrible situation,” Stahl said. “We’re 18 days into the New Year, and we already have officers who have been gunned down. This is not the way to start the year off.”

“We’re going in...to rescue them.”

It was just before 11 p.m. Wednesday when four uniformed patrol officers approached the front door of a home at 22291 SW 162nd Ave., police said.

The homeowner called 911 complaining of squatters and that a shotgun was possibly on the property, according to police radio transmissions from the website Broadcastify.

“We entered through the [front] door,” an officer said on the transmissions. “The squatter was armed with a shotgun pointing at us.”

The man inside opened fire after officers told him to drop the weapon. Police described the ammunition as one-quarter-inch round balls, bigger than pellets. Officers returned fire.

A 57-year-old officer on the force for 15 years was shot in the face and arms, police said. His partner, a 35-year-old male who has seven years with the agency, was also shot in the arm.

A team was requested to get the officers out of the house.

“I need a contact team to stand by...with their helmets and a shield if they have it,” an officer told dispatch, according to Broadcastify. “We are going to go in as a convoy to rescue them.”

The injured officers eventually made it to safety and awaited Miami-Dade Fire Rescue to get them to a hospital. But police directed their own to pick up the downed officers.

“Get the three officers in a car and take them to the hospital right now,” an officer said.

As the three officers were put into patrol cars and driven to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center, where police and family gathered throughout the night, police cordoned off the area and surrounded the home.

Police weren’t immediately aware the gunman had been shot, later learning he was killed on sight.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the shooting.