MARGATE (CBSMiami) – An 82-year-old South Florida man was shot and killed by Margate police after they say he was firing a gun and pointing it at officers over the weekend.
According to Margate police, Jose Antonio Suarez was pointing a gun at people in the 100 block of Rock Island Road on Sunday, March 27 around 12:45 p.m.
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When police arrived on the scene, officers witnessed Suarez waving the gun and shooting into the ground.
After ignoring calls to drop his weapon, police say, Suarez pointed the gun at officers, which resulted in an officer discharging their weapon. Suarez was shot and died on the scene.
“He was a frail old man. He was 82. He was hard of hearing,” his son told CBS4, who added his father was under a lot of stress. “His wife has dementia, his bathrooms, he had mold in the house that was making him and his wife ill, he was stressed out about that. He had been reaching out to us for a month. He said he didn’t feel well. He wanted to die. He even went to the doctor and said he wanted to die. He wanted to catch COVID.”
His son isn’t exactly sure what happened.
“I don’t have the truth. I would like to see the body cams. This was certainly not like my father,” he said. “If he had his hands in the air and was not pointing at police that could have been a wrongful shooting. I just don’t know.”
Rod Skirvin, the president of the Broward PBA, said, “He was continuing to wave his weapon around in a very dangerous manner and continue to fire rounds. Ultimately, this gentleman pointed his weapon at the officers and they had to take action. Ultimately, he forced the officers to have to fire at him but putting the lives of officers in danger and putting the lives of the citizens in danger as well by pointing a weapon around that was functioning and firing bullets.”
Leela Roopnarine, a witness who lives next to the scene, said, “He was on this side of the pavement waving his gun in the air and they told him a couple of times to drop the gun. He did not. He pointed it up in the air and fired a couple of shots.”
“I saw the officer who shot him,” she added. “He felt so bad that he ran under the tree and he was gasping and pouting for air. In my whole life I never saw someone get shot like that.”
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No officers or members of the public were hurt, including a group of young baseball players from the Margate Legacy 13 and Under Baseball League, seen on video running for cover after hearing the gunfire.
“We saw some of the players over on the soccer field running over, and we weren’t really sure what was happening. There was a lot of confusion,” said coach Derek Reddy. “And then, basically, at some point, I don’t know if the word ‘shooter’ or something was yelled to the effect there was basically a gun present.”
Reddy said they never imagined hearing that in the middle of their afternoon game, but he was just glad the children were safe.
“We heard three pops, which I know to be gunshots, and then that created even more of a panic, mostly among the parents and the kids,” he said. “They were shaken up. Definitely in a panic, or scared, to say the least.”
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The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the deadly police-involved shooting.
The officer who fired their weapon was placed on administrative leave, which is standard policy of the department.
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This was the second fatal police-involved shooting in the past month on the same block in Margate. On February 20, they say they were forced to kill a man in a home on NW 1 Street after he was reportedly caught violently attacking his wife. A small child was nearby.
