MIAMI — A gunman shot at and injured a county robbery detective during an undercover surveillance in Northwest Miami-Dade, authorities said, the latest in a series of attacks against law enforcement officers in recent months.
The Robbery Intervention Detail detective was grazed or hit by fragments in the face, Miami-Dade police said Monday.
“Our officer, thank goodness, is doing OK. He’s going to be alright,” Miami-Dade Police Director Alfredo “Freddy” Ramirez told reporters outside Jackson Memorial Hospital, where the detective was being treated.
The department did not say whether the gunman remained on the loose, but did say at least one person had been detained. WSVN-TV reported that a large group of police had responded to another scene to the north in Miramar but it wasn’t immediately clear if that was related to the earlier shooting.
The shooting comes just a few months after another RID detective, Cesar Echaverry, was fatally shot in the head after a car chase in Liberty City. Echaverry’s death stunned the county’s largest Police Department, which has not seen an officer killed in the line of duty since 2007.
Earlier this month, in a separate incident, Miami-Dade police Officer Damian Colon was shot in the head by his ex-girlfriend, authorities say. Colon was not on duty at the time and remains hospitalized. The ex has been arrested and charged with attempted murder.
The department did not identify the RID detective shot Monday, but said he was 34 years old and had been an officer with Miami-Dade for six years.
The RID detective was in an unmarked police vehicle near Northwest 186th Street and 67th Avenue watching a car believed to have been used in a carjacking, Ramirez said. The “cowardly” gunman “ambushed” the detective while he was in his vehicle, Ramirez said.
“My officer didn’t even get a chance to get a round out,” Ramirez said.
Despite the injuries, Ramirez called for reinforcements, the director said.
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