By Michelle Marchante
Source Miami Herald
People in two cars were shooting at each other as they sped along Biscayne Boulevard early Thursday. When a North Miami Beach police sergeant tried to stop them, he was shot at and returned fire, police said.
The cars took off.
The shootout happened in the area of Biscayne Boulevard and Northeast 163rd Street around 2:43 a.m., according to North Miami Beach police.
Police later found one of the cars, a white BMW, with four wounded people inside. They appeared to have gunshot wounds, their injuries “consistent with a gunshot wound and/or a graze,” said North Miami Beach Police Chief Richard Rand during an early morning news conference.
They were taken to the hospital and their injuries are not life-threatening, he said.
The people in the other car, a four-door black Charger, got away.
Rand said the sergeant, who has worked with the police department for six years, was not injured.
“Thank God I don’t have an injured officer ... We will catch the people involved in this. We have some good leads,” Rand said.
The four-way intersection of Biscayne Boulevard and Northeast 163rd Street was shut down for more than five hours in all directions for the investigation. The roads reopened shortly before 9:30 a.m. Video taken by local TV news station earlier in the day showed the intersection, which has a Shell gas station and a strip club, surrounded by crime tape.
Dozens of evidence markers were scattered on the road. Police say they’ve found bullet casings across at least 20 blocks, according to WSVN.
North Miami Beach police are asking people to avoid the area and seek alternate routes. Anyone with information that can help with the investigation should call police.
Thursday’s shootout has capped a week of violence involving South Florida officers. On Oct. 25, at least one Miami-Dade police officer shot a man wanted for an armed home invasion after police say he tried to hit them with a car. The suspect later died at the hospital.
On Friday, two Doral police officers were wounded after a man opened fire on them. Police shot back and the suspect — identified by sources as Yordany Rodriguez Perez, 24, of Hialeah — was killed.
And on Oct. 18, Hollywood Police Officer Yandy Chirino was shot and killed while trying to apprehend an armed burglary suspect.
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