Deputies shot and killed an armed man as they were serving a search warrant related to a year-long child pornography investigation at a home in southwest Miami-Dade Tuesday morning, authorities said.
Miami-Dade Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz said deputies arrived at the house on Southwest 155th Street and Southwest 102nd Court in Palmetto Estates around 5:30 a.m. to serve the warrant in the Internet Crimes Against Children investigation into child pornography and sexual abuse involving victims who “ranged from the ages of infancy to 6 years of age.”
When they arrived, deputies made contact with two adults and a child at the door, and the three of them were safely removed from the property.
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Video shows a large law enforcement presence on Southwest 155th Street and Southwest 102nd Court in Palmetto Estates.
A short time later, an armed person came to the door and “confronted” authorities, the sheriff said. Cordero-Stutz said that subject “failed to obey the orders to drop the weapon,” and deputies opened fired. They rendered aid at the scene, but the subject did not survive.
When asked if deputies were the first to shoot and whether the suspect opened fire, Cordero-Stutz said the Florida Department of Law Enforcement would be investigating those details, as is standard in law enforcement shootings.
A second subject, a man, was removed from the home and was in custody. He is the one referred to in the search warrant, Cordero-Stutz said.
“The warrant for ICAC that was served included trading in this type of pornography and sexual abuse as well as watching,” Cordero-Stutz said. “We will continue to deep dive and ensure that any and all victims that we can identify and provide certain services to, that we will do that.”
Miami-Dade Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz speaks after deputies shot and killed a person and detained a man as they were serving a search warrant in an Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) investigation at a home in Southwest Miami-Dade on Tuesday. This video has been edited to include her comments in English.
The identities of either subject were not immediately released.
No deputies were hurt in the shooting.
Video showed a large law enforcement presence in the area, which is just south of Coral Reef Drive (Southwest 152nd Street). At least two armored trucks belonging to the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office’s Special Response Team and several deputies could be seen in the area of a cul-de-sac.
A distraught woman who was seen crying at the scene said she’d received a call from her son saying that deputies were at his house.
She said she didn’t know why deputies entered her son’s house but said they killed her stepson. She said she also picked up her 3-year-old grandson who was in the home but not hurt.
“It’s very important to share with you that ICAC search warrants are the most dangerous warrants historically in law enforcement that we can serve,” Cordero-Stutz said.