MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – The Miami-Dade Police Department has identified one of its officers and a suspect who were involved in a fatal shooting over the weekend in North Miami.
According to authorities, county officers were assisting the North Miami Police Department Saturday afternoon when a man, identified Monday as Pierre J. Cher Frere, 25, was spotted walking in a bulletproof vest and carrying a shotgun near Northeast Second Avenue and Northeast 119th Terrace.
Authorities said attempts were made to negotiate with Cher Frere, which resulted in shots being fired.
Witness Daniel Pagan told Local 10 News that he was walking his dog when the incident unfolded. He said police gave Cher Frere about an hour, yelling at him to drop the gun before he was shot.
"I seen (sic) the cops come and say, 'Put the gun down. Everybody evacuate,'" Pagan said. "They tell him, 'Put the gun down.' He froze. He wouldn't put the gun down. They gave him like an hour, they gave him like at least close to an hour to put the gun down."
Police said Cher Frere was ultimately shot and pronounced dead at the scene.
His brother called the shooting "an assassination."
"Thirty bullets for one man -- a black man," Obadiah Israel said. "What did he do to (deserve to) die?"
Miami-Dade police Officer Sergio Rivera, 37, was shot in the lower body during the ordeal.
Paramedics rushed the officer to Jackson Memorial Hospital's Ryder Trauma Center, where he was listed in stable condition.
Rivera has been employed by the Miami-Dade Police Department for 2 1/2 years, authorities confirmed.
Because the incident was a police-involving shooting, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement is leading the investigation. FDLE officials said they recovered the suspect's shotgun and bulletproof vest.