New details have emerged in the shooting last December of two men in Miami Dade County. Police were looking for Adrian Montesano, 27, who had shot a police officer after robbing a Walgreens at gunpoint. They spotted him in a car with another man and gave chase. The Blue Volvo crashed and was wedged between a light pole and a tree. Police surrounded the vehicle and then opened fire — hitting the car with some 50 bullets. There was then another period of quiet and the men were told to surrender. Some witnesses say that the wounded men were raising their hands. Police say that they saw movement and unleashed a barrage of bullets. In all, some 377 rounds were fired — hitting other cars, businesses, and a home with children inside. Some are calling this a case of a police “frenzy” where the officers lost control in two rounds of massive shooting.
Montesano shot Miami Dade Police Officer Saul Rodriguez in a nearby trailer park after robbing the Walgreens. He then escaped in the officer’s car and dumped it at his grandmother’s house in Hialeah. A massive search was launched after the shooting of the officer and he was eventually spotted in the blue Volvo. In the car was Corsini Valdes (right), 52, who was not accused of a crime though he is referred to as an accomplice in some stories. Some reports indicate that Montesano had an addiction and that would explain his unplanned and bizarre conduct, including using (and abandoning) his air conditioning repair truck with his name on it at the scene.
There is no question that Montesano was legitimately viewed as armed and dangerous and that police had reason to fear giving him any additional opportunity to use his weapon. He had taken a hostage at the store before shooting the officer.
The barrage was so extensive and two Miami Dade officers were also hit by their own colleagues. One was shot in the arm and one grazed in the head. Families threw themselves to the floor as bullets threw in every direction. Two officers actually suffered ruptured ear drums from the long period of gunfire.
Notably, so many police cars surrounded the immobilized Volvo that the Special Response Team (SRT) that was supposed to capture the suspects could not get to the scene because they were blocked by police cars. It is not clear why, without fire coming from the car, it was necessary to fire the first time into the car. One witness, Anthony Vandiver, insists that the two men were putting their hands up as instructed by police when they police opened up again on the car. Police say that they saw movement but the witness said that police were telling the men to raise their hands. I am also not sure why movement alone would justify the second round of bullets absent an officer saying that the suspects were pointing a weapon. I am equally skeptical with the police response in terms of the level of force given the danger to surrounding homes and even fellow officers.
The police say that they were still investigating but it could take years to reach final conclusions from such an investigation.
Source: CBS
Why don’t they just use Ed Norris’s reasoning: In the heat of the moment, it’s really easy to empty your magazine.
Yep, that’s what he said on his radio show a few years back. That’s why NYC cops shot a guy 43 times… Because it’s easy to unload your magazine.
Here’s another tragic case of fatal contagious fire in Miami Beach–“The killing of Raymond Herisse: 116 shots that shook South Beach: Two years after a motorist was killed and four bystanders wounded in a breathtaking barrage, cops won’t fully explain the onslaught” @ http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/05/25/3417050/the-killing-of-raymond-herisse.html
RE: Chuck Stanley, May 9, 2014 at 8:36 am
For some time now, I have multiple video cameras in my home, and a GPS-logging dashcam in the car I drive.
Being both an engineer and a master electrician, I am able to modify commercial home alarm equipment so that every way I have been able to figure out how the alarm could be defeated by someone familiar with the commercial version has a countermeasure of my own design.
My main reason for the dashcam is as a way for me to observe any driving blunders that happen, all the better to figure out how to avoid similar blunders in the future.
This past week, I found an automobile GPS unit that has a speed warning that can be set at 1 mile per hour increments. The company that made it is out of business, no new maps are available for it, and the cost was $2.00. I have set the speed warning at 24 miles per hour, so that it will warn me as I approach speeding ticket entitlement, because the speed control servomechanism in the car cannot be set below about 25 miles per hour.
Wisconsin is an absolute maximum speed limit state, such that going 25.001 miles per hour in a 25 mile per hour zone is a violation. So, I figure I am likely to be legal at 24 miles per hour as indicated by this obsolete GPS unit.
As for the fusillade, is psychosis accurately defined by social norms, or is it a function of departure from biologically tangible reality?
On the bright side, two cops were shot and two more suffered ruptured ear drums.
How do you spell out of control? M-I-A-M-I D-A-D-E Police.
Cop arrogance. Execute the entire lot. They belong off the street and in the ground.
Dredd,
Without having access to the official report of the shooting incident I don’t have much to go on as to why the first round was fired but I never the less regardless of why the first shot happened the result was wildly out of control.
One problem that happens with police is there is a psychological drive to go in quickly and take charge. This works ok for most incidents but in the case such as this it leads to problems with everyone arriving on scene except for the first several responders. Some can’t see the need to shutdown the perimeter in the event the suspects flee the car, but go straight to the suspects.
The problem with these amped up incidents, especially where another officer had been shot previously, once the gunfire starts from one officer it can cause others to start shooting which then causes nearly everyone to start shooting. Even if the gunfire stops it can flare back up as we have seen here. The fact that officers disregarded their backdrop and houses where hit and that two officers were hit in crossfire to me shows this was not a controlled situation.
Many who have served in a police capacity have been in some serious incidents facing the type of armed felon such as this case but if training and common sense are followed frenzies such as this should not happen.
Al Zheimers
How many of the opCays were military veterans? How many were in the military police? You don’t hire those people.
———————-
jonolan
Anyone here been in a fire fight? Lived through a mad minute? If not, then in Liberals’ worlds, check your privilege, civilians. Shit happens when things go wild.
====================
You be knowin’ in the wind:
(The Virgin MOMCOM – 6).