The Miami Police Department (MPD) claims that 21-year-old Menelek Emmanuel Clarke used his car to hit an officer who was directing traffic outside the downtown Miami park, where the Caribbean music festival Best of the Best was taking place. In response, police say, the officer shot Clarke multiple times.
"One of our officers was on a traffic post when – we're still investigating what exactly happened – but we know that a vehicle made physical contact with the officer," MPD assistant police chief Armando Aguilar told Local 10. "As a result of the incident, shots were fired."
Clarke's sister, who was in the car with him during the shooting, said the MPD officer had used hand signals to indicate that drivers should move forward, but then suddenly stepped in front of their car. She emphasized that Clarke was trying to drive around the officer, not toward him.
"It wasn't intentional to hit him," she told CBS Miami.
While many questions remain unanswered, and MPD has not released body-camera footage from the incident – citing ongoing state and internal affairs investigations – bystander cell phone footage captures key moments of the dramatic shooting.
Filmmaker and Miami native Billy Corben posted a video on Instagram showing a black BMW slowly making a left turn on the road outside of the park as a police officer wearing a reflective yellow vest clings to the car's hood and fires multiple shots through its windshield.
"What's going on?" someone shouts as the gunfire erupts.
As the BMW comes to a stop several feet away, the video shows Clarke exiting the car and walking across a crosswalk with his hands raised. The camera then pans to a crowd fleeing along the park's sidewalk, before returning to show Clarke lying on the ground on his back.
The officer orders Clarke to roll over, the video shows, revealing a large red bloodstain on the back of his white T-shirt.
Clarke's sister told WPLG Local 10 that as of Monday, her brother was in critical, but stable, condition at Jackson Memorial Hospital Ryder Trauma Center.
"He's stable. He just got a tube taken out, so he's talking," she said. "He said that he felt like he was going to die."
This is a breaking story and will be updated as events warrant.
