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Miguel Rodriguez and his wife, Barbara, were waiting for some barbecue after work on a Friday afternoon late last year when all hell broke loose inside People's Bar-B-Que in Overtown.
A screaming man dressed head to toe in black charged the busy take-out counter, wielding a handgun sideways, gangsta-style. Rodriguez, a Miami-Dade firefighter and former cop, was so terrified he felt chest pains. Other patrons hit the floor and shrieked. Rodriguez had one last thought as he threw his hands in the air: I'm going to get shot.
Not until several bowel-loosening minutes later did the man in black -- now surrounded by City of Miami cops -- pull out his badge and identify himself as an undercover officer making a bust. After the scene settled down, the cop was "rude and confrontational" and refused to give his name before storming off with his fellow officers, Rodriguez says.
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