MIAMI – Local 10 News has obtained surveillance video from inside the Magic City Casino when an off-duty Miami police officer was attacked while trying to remove a belligerent gambler from inside the poker room.
The pair wrestled on the ground early Jan. 21 before Jose Carvajal Lopez, 29, pulled a knife out and stabbed the officer in the face, police said.
In response, the officer shot Lopez in the stomach.
The incident began when Lopez refused to leave the poker room and threw a handful of cash right in the officer's face, police said.
The pair then started wrestling on the ground.
Surveillance video shows other patrons picking up the cash scattered across the floor as the struggle continued between the officer and Lopez.
At one point, Lopez pulled a knife from his pocket and stabbed the officer in the face.
The officer then pulled out his gun and fired a shot right into the man's stomach.
Many in the poker room were startled by what they had witnessed.
"I heard someone yell knife and then a shot went off," George Davila, a witness, said. "Apparently , the officer had no choice and had blood on his face and the officer had gotten attacked."
Officers then swarmed the casino floor.
Lopez is seen on video bleeding from his stomach before he was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital.
Carvajal-Lopez is charged with attempted second-degree murder of a law enforcement officer and resisting arrest with violence.