Three Miami-Dade officers involved in a shootout last year that left a suspected squatter dead won’t face criminal charges, prosecutors said, as new body camera footage shows the deadly encounter.
In a close-out memo from earlier this month, the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office determined the officers were legally justified in the Jan. 17, 2024 shootout that killed Christopher Lynn Bailey.
The officers had responded to the home in the 22000 block of Southwest 162nd Avenue after the owner reported that squatters were occupying the home.
Officers tried to enter with keys provided by the owner but the bottom lock wouldn’t open, so they made their way to the back and entered through a sliding glass door.
That’s where they encountered Bailey, who yelled at them to “get out of here” and was armed with a 12-gauge shotgun, the memo said.
The officers’ body cameras captured the tense encounter as they told him numerous times to drop the weapon.
At one point, Bailey opened fire, and the officers returned fire, the memo said.
Bailey was killed, while two officers, Mario Bianchi and Nikolas Infante, were also struck by gunfire. A third officer wasn’t hit but suffered minor injuries.
Investigators determined three officers – Infante, Bradley Chang, and Jocelyn Arevalo – opened fire during the encounter but were justified in doing so based on Bradley’s “aggressive and deadly actions” in shooting at them.
“Deputies Chang, Bianchi, Infante, and Arevalo appropriately initiated the non-deadly encounter with Bailey, who met deputies attempts to make contact with him, with deadly force by arming himself with a shotgun,” the memo said. “Despite this, the deputies attempted to de-escalate the situation by identifying themselves and ordering Bailey to put down the shotgun. Bailey ignored these orders, firing multiple rounds at the deputies with the intent to kill as exemplified by Deputy Bianchi being hit by gunfire to the head, neck, and upper torso area.”