Armed shoplifter shot by police in Florida
KENDALL, Fla. May 17 2021 – A gun-shaped knife led police to shoot a shoplifting suspect Friday night at The Falls in Kendall, according to the Miami-Dade Police Department.
Just before 8:30 p.m., police were called to a possible shoplifting incident near the Macy’s store, according to Detective Alvaro Zabaleta, a spokesman for the department.
“As the subject was walking out of the store, they attempted to detain the individual and that’s when he produced what appeared to be a firearm,” Zabaleta said.
The shooting was at the exit door of Macy’s on the northwestern side of the shopping mall at 8888 SW 136 St.
“You can clearly see that this thing, this object, looks identical to a firearm, but it was later determined that it was in fact not a firearm, it was a knife,” Zabaleta said.
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue personnel responded and took the wounded man to Jackson South Medical Center. Zabaleta said his condition was critical but stable.
“(The) officer discharged his firearm striking the subject in the lower extremity,” according to Zabaleta.
Despite the incident happening so close to one of the mall’s exits, the store or the mall was never placed on lockdown.
Officers used yellow crime scene tape to block the parking lot outside of Macy’s near Southwest 136th Street and Southwest 92nd Avenue.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigation because a police officer was involved.
