The Miami Lakes town council honored two police officers for their work while arresting and disarming a 17-year-old boy on a busy Friday night in June.
Miami-Dade Police Maj. Jose Gonzalez, who leads the agency’s district in town, helped present awards to Sgt. Jamelle Gonzalez and Det. Joseph Rodriguez before the June 9 municipal meeting.
The officers, hired by The Graham Companies, were outside the movie theater around 9 p.m. on June 14. Det. Rodriguez saw a masked teen pacing back and forth in front of the ticket office, an incident report said.
Main Street is private property. After 8 p.m., minors are under a curfew and must have an adult accompanying them.
“[Det. Rodriguez] went to investigate, and the individual took off running,” Maj. Gonzalez said.
The officers chased the teen. Det. Rodriguez received minor scrapes and Sgt. Gonzalez bruised her knee while making the arrest, the report said.
“They were able to retrieve a firearm off the individual,” Gonzalez said.
Officers took into evidence a loaded handgun, ammunition and four oxycodone pills, the report said.
The teen was in jail as of July 26. He faces three felony charges -- for resisting arrest, having a controlled substance and having a concealed firearm -- and two misdemeanors for disorderly conduct and possession of a firearm by a minor. He is also facing charges in a Miami Gardens case, according to court records.
“The individual was on probation for a shooting already,” Maj. Gonzalez said.
He praised the officers’ instincts and said he applied to the police department for commendations for them.
Sgt. Gonzalez works in the airport district and Det. Rodriguez is on the robbery intervention squad. They were moonlighting that night, what’s called an off-duty detail.
Det. Rodriguez called it “a normal incident that occurs every day in this uniform.”