BY David Ovalle
The Miami Herald
CUTLER RIDGE, Fla. — A rookie Miami-Dade police officer was shot and wounded in Cutler Ridge Sunday night and a suspect was in custody, authorities said.
The officer, Robert Gonzalez, 31, was airlifted to Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital, where he was in serious but stable condition, according to police spokesman Juan Villalba.
Authorities said a suspect was under arrest. The shooting came after the officer got out of his police car in a warehouse district to investigate a suspicious person. The suspect ran and during the foot chase, he turned and fired several times at the officer who was hit three times with .40 caliber bullets -- in the leg, groin and foot. Investigators do not believe the office returned fire.
Other police officers arrested the suspect at a gas station nearby, authorities said. He still had the gun on him.
The shooting, which occurred at or near the intersection of Southwest 186th Street and 107th Avenue, was only the latest episode of violence against police officers in South Florida.
On Jan. 8, a Miami police detective was shot and killed in his unmarked vehicle while off duty outside his ex-wife’s apartment near Northeast 164th Street amnd 18th Avenue in North Miami Beach.
Investigators later said that Detective James Walker unknowingly might have been the victim of mistaken identity.
In September, one Miami-Dade officer was killed and three were wounded in a shooutout with a suspect. In Broward last year, two Broward County Sheriff’s deputies were shot and killed in separate incidents.
Villalba and Detective Alvaro Zabaleta, said the shooting occurred at around 8:20 p.m. when officer Gonzalez approached the suspect in the warehouse district along 106th lane. Villalba said the officer who was wounded wore a uniform.
Zabaleta said Gonzalez has been on the Miami-Dade police force for 10 months.
At Ryder Trauma Center, several Miami-Dade police cruisers, some with their lights flashing, were seen near the entrance to the hospital. Several officers were seen walking into the hospital.
Herald Staff Writer Jennifer Lebovich contributed to this story.
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