MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. — The Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday released body camera video showing a deputy-involved shooting that they said left a 21-year-old man dead during a SWAT raid tied to a child sexual exploitation investigation.
The shooting occurred on Dec. 2, 2025, when deputies with MDSO’s Special Response Team served a search warrant at a home near Fairway Heights Boulevard and Southwest 102nd Place.
Deputies said they were assisting the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force in an investigation involving alleged child sexual abuse material.
According to MDSO, deputies used a long-range acoustic device to announce the search warrant and repeatedly instructed occupants to open the door and come outside.
When no one complied, body camera video shows the moments that deputies breached the front door and safely removed a man, two women, and a child from the home.
Seconds later, video shows 21-year-old Christopher Barata walking into the living room holding a handgun. Two deputies then fired their service weapons, striking Barata. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
After the shooting, Cristian Barata, 25 — the subject of the search warrant and Christopher Barata’s brother — emerged from a hallway and was arrested around 12:15 a.m.
He faces 15 counts of possessing images of sexual performance by a child and 10 counts of promoting or attempting to promote sexual performance by a child, according to jail records obtained by Local 10 News.
Investigators said the case stemmed from at least 11 cyber tips reporting child sexual abuse material, with the most recent activity occurring in September. They said the material included videos involving children as young as 3 years old.
Cristian Barata’s bond was initially set at $87,500. As of Wednesday morning, he did not appear as an inmate on the Miami-Dade County Corrections website.
Miami-Dade County Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz previously said deputies were confronted by an armed individual and were forced to fire. She noted that deputies attempted to render aid to Christopher Barata, but he died at the home.
Christopher Barata’s mother disputed claims that her son owned a gun, telling Local 10 News back in December that he worked for the Transportation Security Administration and planned to join the U.S. Army.
“He was just 21 years old,” she said in Spanish. “They killed him.”
The TSA confirmed both men had worked for the agency.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is conducting an independent investigation into the deputy-involved shooting.
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