A Miami Beach cop shot and killed a man early this morning while trying to break up a fight near 12th Street and Washington Avenue in South Beach. The officer fired two shots into the suspect's stomach, says Deborah Doty, a MBPD spokeswoman, and the man died a short time later.
"When the officer arrived, he saw the subject with a gun out," Doty says. "He told him: 'Put down the weapon, put down the weapon,' but the man refused. Then the officer shot him."
The officer, whom Doty declined to name pending an investigation, responded to a 911 call at 4:39 a.m. that two groups were brawling on Washington Avenue.
The cop found the fight ongoing at 1240 Washington Ave., in the heart of SoBe's club scene. When he spotted the man with the gun -- and the suspect refused to drop his weapon -- the officer fired, Doty says.
"The subject was transported to Ryder Trauma Center, where he died," Doty says.
Doty also declined to identify the victim until family members have been notified.
This morning's shooting is only a couple blocks south of the scene of MBPD's last fatal shooting -- the infamous Memorial Day Weekend shooting earlier this year that was caught on camera and went viral on the web.
More than 100 shots were fired in that incident, which killed 22-year-old Raymond Herisse, whom police say tried to ram them with his car before the shooting.
