LEISURE CITY, Fla. – A police-involved shooting left a 15-year-old boy in foster care wounded on Thanksgiving Day at a home in Miami-Dade County's Leisure City neighborhood.
Five Miami-Dade Police Department officers responded to a report of domestic violence at the 3-bedroom home at 30120 SW 146 Ave., near Homestead.
Miami-Dade Police Director Juan Perez said the boy, a new arrival at the foster home, wasn't taking his prescribed medication, and he was becoming violent.
"During that physical altercation, one of the officers discharged his fire arm one time," Perez said.
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue personnel rushed the teen, who was shot in the lower torso, to Kendall Regional Medical Center's trauma center. Detective Lee Cowart, a spokesman for the Miami-Dade Police Department, said the boy was in stable condition.
Lee Young said the teenage boy who was shot was already known in the neighborhood.
"He only talk about this gangster stuff," Young said. "I would be trying to tell him to go to school, and play football and stuff like that."
Miami-Dade property records show Lee and Crystal Bradshaw have been the owners of the home since 1993. Relatives said they respect how the retired social worker and Vietnam veteran tries to help foster kids. Marquell Baughns, a relative said, he has been helping children for a while.
"I know he fosters a couple of kids and all of them seem to be good kids, but all of them got problems ... I am pretty sure the Thanksgiving plan in Lee's house was to sit down and eat dinner," said Rufus Lester, Bradshaw's cousin.
Perez said he had "a lot of concerns" about the shooting. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement and Miami-Dade County prosecutors are investigating the shooting.
Lee said the officer involved in the shooting and a supervisor have been relieved of duty pending the outcome of the investigation.