HOMESTEAD, Fla. – A witness’s video shows a gunman’s erratic behavior before an off-duty Miami-Dade police officer shot and killed him on Saturday evening in Homestead.
Local 10 News sources identified the police officer as Francisco Moreno and the Miami-Dade Police Department confirmed his identity on Monday afternoon.
The video shows the gunman firing at a parked sports utility vehicle outside of the Publix Super Market located at 2950 Northeast Eighth St., near the Turnpike, police said.
The video also shows the gunman, who police identified as 44-year-old Alexander Arrington, saying he wanted to get into his car before the police officer fatally shot him.
“It was chaotic, everybody running, even trying to cross into the canal to get away from what we thought was happening inside,” shopper Janet Kaufman said.
Richard Diaz is an attorney who specializes in use of force cases.
“All the officer needs to have is reasonable belief that a person’s life is in danger to use deadly force,” Diaz said. “Even before the police commands were given, I believe the shooting would have been justified.”
Diaz is a former Miami-Dade police officer. He said what stood out to him was the gunman’s erratic behavior.
“We have this person wielding a gun in an open and active parking lot, in a very reckless way,” Diaz said, adding that this took place during a busy time, around 6 p.m. on a Saturday.
“Publix shopping center, a lot of people coming in and coming out,” he said. “This was a no-choice situation. The officer acted consistent with the training.”
Attorney Brett Schwartz, who previously represented Arrington in a domestic battery case that Schwartz said “was quickly dropped due to a lack of evidence,” said the two hadn’t been in touch recently.
“Although I have not communicated with Alex for some time, he was not a dangerous individual,” Schwartz said in an email to Local 10 News. “He was a veteran who served our country admirably and like so many others, was not provided the mental health care or services he desperately needed.”
Friends of Arrington’s told Local 10 News he was a U.S. Army veteran who struggled with substance abuse issues in the past.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement will lead the investigation, as is customary with any police-involved shooting in the state.
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