Man Armed With Rifle Killed in Police Shootout in Miami Gardens

A man armed with a rifle was killed in a police shootout Monday after a murder investigation led detectives to a neighborhood in Miami Gardens.

Miami-Dade Sgt. Erin Alfonso said detectives were following up on leads from a deadly shooting over the weekend outside a pawn shop in Opa-locka. The investigation led them to the neighborhood in the area of Northwest 207th Street and 23rd Court, near Hard Rock Stadium.

There, police encountered the subject, who was armed with a rifle and a handgun, Alfonso said. He started shooting at the officers, and the officers fired back, killing him.

Quenisa Calloway told NBC 6 her boyfriend, Ronnie Churches, was the one killed in the gun battle with police.

"He was like, 'I love you. I'll be back, I'm gonna call you,'" Calloway said. "Like not even a minute later, I hear gunshots."

She saw him get into a car and start to drive off, but police kept shooting at the vehicle.

"And I lost view of him, and I jumped to the other room so I can see him, and the car had slowed down and it stopped," Calloway said. "They were saying, 'Put your hands up.'"

Police have not identified man and are not confirming whether he is the same person who committed the murder of Roberto Cardenas in Opa-locka.

Calloway told NBC 6 that she saw Churches shoot and kill Cardenas, who happens to be her brother-in-law.

Footage from Chopper 6 shows the scene of destruction of a gold-colored Toyota Prius riddled with bullets and a large gun on the sidewalk nearby. 

Neighbors said they heard up to six gunshots and the chaos of the police response.

"I heard pop pop pop, then a deeper pop pop pop, it was two different guns," one witness, Marissa Romeo, said.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the police-involved shooting.

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