A man was taken into police custody after being seen pointing a rifle in a residential area of Miami Beach on Friday afternoon, officials reported. The unsettling incident led to a substantial response by law enforcement, including the deployment of a SWAT team.
According to information obtained by CBS News, calls came in around 4 p.m. from neighbors reporting a man who was aiming a rifle out from his condo's balcony at other condos and passing individuals near 1200 West Avenue. After the calls, a heavy police presence swarmed the area, with the Miami Beach Police Department bringing at least one SWAT team to the scene. Witnesses saw a man, wearing a white tank top, was later placed in handcuffs and escorted into the back of a police cruiser.
The man, whose identity has not been disclosed, was surrendered without further incident after SWAT negotiators de-escalated the situation, and aerial footage from Chopper 6 captured the large police presence and the blocked streets below.
As stated by Miami Beach Police spokesperson Chris Bess in an NBC Miami article, officers established a perimeter and responded to the incident, which involved negotiations that led to the man's surrender. The man is now likely to be Baker Acted—a reference to the Florida Mental Health Act that allows for involuntary examination—as he was determined to be going through a medical crisis. No further threat to the public exists, and no injuries were reported as the investigation continues.
Amid these troubling events, the police assured that a crisis team had assessed the situation and the individual in question would undergo a mental health evaluation.
