FL Officer Critically Wounded in Shooting

A Miami-Dade, FL, police officer is reported to be in extremely critical condition after being shot in the head Monday night during a confrontation with a suspect who tried to flee from officers.

The Miami Herald reports the wounded officer is Detective Cesar Echaverry.  He has been moved to a neurological intensive care unit and is in “extremely critical condition,” according to a department-wide email sent to officers on Tuesday afternoon.

Officers were dispatched to a Liberty City neighborhood around 8:15 p.m. to assist when robbery intervention officers located a car suspected to have been involved in a robbery, WSVN reports. The suspect fled, hit an officer’s vehicle, and then struck another vehicle.

Police confronted the robbery suspect and in an exchange of gunfire the officer was wounded, and the suspect killed.

“A Miami-Dade police officer, member of the robbery intervention detail, was critically shot by an armed subject while protecting his community,” says MDPD Director Alfredo Ramirez. “I just asked our fellow officers to stand as one. Our fire department to stand as one for the officer and the family and I ask our community to please stand as one and pray.”

Police identified the suspect killed in the officer-involved shooting as Jerry Horton, 32, of Madison Heights, MI, reports Local10 . He is reported to have had a lengthy criminal record.