By Emily Cochrane
The Miami Herald
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — A Miami man was shot by a Miami Gardens officer after police say he pulled out a gun during a traffic stop early Sunday.
A marked police car stopped a black sedan at Northwest 183rd Street and 12th Avenue around 3 a.m. Sunday.
Miami Gardens Police Chief Antonio Brooklen said the officer and the man, 37-year-old Gary Sprauve, exchanged gunfire, and Sprauve was shot.
The officer’s vehicle was also shot on the passenger’s side during the gunfire.
Sprauve, now wounded, drove away from the scene. The officer sped after him, and the chase ended at 191st Street and North Miami Avenue near the Church of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. On the way, police said Sprauve hit a civilian car.
The man was taken to a Aventura Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Police recovered the man’s gun from the scene of the traffic stop, plus an additional gun and a bulletproof vest from Sprauve’s car.
The officer, who has been with the department nearly four years, was not injured.
“It’s disturbing to me that not only do you have crimes being committed against the entire South Florida region, against our children, but they’re now being committed against the people put in place to protect our citizens,” Brooklen said.
Sprauve, who was convicted of burglary in 2007, was charged with first-degree attempted murder of a law enforcement officer, two counts of owning a gun during a felony, two counts of owning a gun as a convicted felon and wearing a bulletproof vest while trying to kill a police officer.
“What’s more disturbing is that this gentlemen had two firearms and a bulletproof vest on. His intention was to go out and do harm to someone in our community,” Brooklen said.
On Wednesday, a Florida Highway Patrol trooper shot and killed a driver in Miami Gardens. It was one of three officer-involved shootings in Miami-Dade in a single day.
And in January, a Miami Gardens officer was shot less than a mile from the scene of Sunday’s shooting in what the police chief described as an “ambush” at the time.
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