Wrote Marcellus Johnson, who posted the clip he had captured to Instagram: ‘Miami Beach Police Officers tried to talk him down, but he just wouldn’t cooperate.
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The victim was transported to Jackson Memorial Hospital with non-life threatening injuries while the suspect was arrested at the scene and remains unidentified.
The scene caused confusion among patrons at the event, who thought they watching a piece of performance art.
A spokeswoman for Art Basel told Metro.co.uk that the attack was “an isolated incident that was immediately secured”.
After the shooting, which occurred in front of the barber shop, witnesses gave conflicting accounts that officers also had fired a Taser on the man. Police could not immediately verify whether officers fired a Taser during the encounter.
Moments later, the officer fires the rifle – two shots can be heard – and the man falls backward onto the street, clutching his chest. Miami Beach police have not addressed the footage, nor have they named the man killed by police.
The FBI said it was investigating the attempted bank robbery, during which no money was handed over to the suspect.
The Miami Beach police department has announced an initiative to place body cameras on all police shortly, and we will follow up to see if these officers were wearing body cameras at the time of the shooting.
“He was gesturing for them to like come at him”, Stephanie Dsoto said.
Witness Sylvia Rodrigues told the newspaper that she was walking to a nearby corner store when the shooting happened.
Then the shirtless man, who was holding the razor, took a step forward.
“It went boom-boom, twice”, Rodriguez said.
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While she was being patted down by the officer, she said, ‘I had to kill her and two more. A 911 caller said the suspect was armed with a bomb and passed a note to the teller, she said.
