Home Crime and Punishment Miami Beach Police Chief Carlos Noriega: “I find it insulting that the...

Miami Beach Police Chief Carlos Noriega: “I find it insulting that the only thing we’re looking at as a barometer of what went wrong this weekend is how many shots were fired”

June 3, 2011

“Video shot from a nearby fifth-floor apartment and posted on YouTube shows the car speeding down Collins Avenue amid gunfire and skidding to a stop after four shots rang out,” miamiherald.com reports. “Officers surrounded the car with their guns drawn, and about a minute later fired a barrage of bullets. [Other reports peg the number at “over 100″] Four bystanders were struck by bullets. Three officers had minor injuries. Noriega previously did not rule out the possibility that the bystanders were struck by police bullets . . . The names of the officers and the bystanders were not released.” Sounds like another case of Sympathetic Fire, wherein their own gunfire convinces cops they’re under attack, leading to more and faster shooting. Vicious circles can kill.

9 COMMENTS

JOE MATAFOME June 3, 2011 At 22:25

I think someone’s going to get their wrist slapped for this one.
- Chris Dumm June 4, 2011 At 00:20
  
  I’d be surprised to see that much discipline. Discipline, of the trigger and training varieties, seems to be a scarce commodity in the Miami PD.
CUJO THE DOG OF WAR June 3, 2011 At 23:02

I’m amazed that no one but the driver was killed. I also wonder if shorter range riot shotguns couldn’t have been deployed. This appeared to be almost panic shooting. At least 00 buck rounds would have had less chance of ricochet, and more instant results in downing the suspect.
- Bob H June 4, 2011 At 00:50
  
  Shirley, you aren’t suggesting that firing 100 rounds into a stopped vehicle was unjustified? The shots were fired by POLICE… therefore they are justified. Just ask the PBA lawyer.
  
  Had it been you and I shooting into the vehicle, even were it the source of multiple automatic weapons, we would be in jail tonight.
  - CUJO THE DOG OF WAR June 4, 2011 At 04:33
    
    You got that right,Brother! It looked like something out of the 1930’s-the shooting of Bonnie and Clyde.
  - mikeb302000 June 5, 2011 At 04:21
    
    That’s right. Cops get away with murder, so to speak.
Res Publica Americana June 4, 2011 At 06:11

When you put on a badge, you become an infallible agent of justice.
- Benjamin T. Shotzberger June 4, 2011 At 21:43
  
  That must be why those Concealed Carry Permit badges are all the rage..
revjen45 June 5, 2011 At 11:12

Re: Shotguns & #00. The sheriff’s office in the county where I live replaced their shotguns with .223 carbines with the rationale that some of the projectiles from a shotgun will miss the target nearly always. Whether that would have been the case in this incident is conjecture, but it seems like they were putting plenty of stray bullets into the surrounding environment with what they had.