A 20-year-old Cuban from Miramar, Broward County, has been charged with shooting and slightly injuring a Miami-Dade police officer.
Police records show the suspect, identified as Gabriel Góngora and arrested early Tuesday, is facing a first-degree attempted murder of a police officer.
According to the arrest report, Detective Ricaurte Lugo of the Miami-Dade Robbery Intervention Unit was in northwest Miami-Dade in search of a black Volkswagen suspected to be an armed robbery.
He then saw the car pulling out of the Heaven Lake Estates trailer park at Northwest 202nd Street and 57th Avenue. When the officer called for backup, the Volkswagen began driving erratically near Northwest 186th Street and 67th Avenue, and Góngora opened fire, hitting Lugo in the face, the report reveals.
As a result of the incident, the detective was flown to the Ryder Trauma Center in stable condition. “Thank God our officer is fine. He’ll be fine,” Miami-Dade Police Chief Alfredo “Freddy” Ramirez told reporters outside Jackson Memorial Hospital, where the detective was being treated.
Góngora and the car were later found at his home in Miramar. A bullet casing was found in the car, police said, and the young man later admitted “his involvement in the incident.” On the other hand, Lugo identified Góngora as his attacker.
Ramírez mourned the officers injured on duty. “I want the community to know that we’re not going to stop. We will continue (…) If you are a particularly violent criminal, we will catch you,” he warned, according to a report by América Tevé.
In the shopping center where the events took place, the employees described the moment. “It was something very scary, that was full of police,” said a restaurant worker. “It happens all the time,” he said of how often similar incidents happen in the area.
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