A 40-year-old Hialeah man was arrested Wednesday at his residence along East 29th Street after police said he made repeated death threats against officers, telling the department's communications section he wanted “war with the police.” Ariel Pino now faces charges including making written threats to kill or cause bodily injury and resisting an officer without violence after a standoff that ended with his own father letting investigators into the apartment.
According to WSVN, Pino made several death threats to the Hialeah Police Department's communications section through a string of phone calls and text messages. Investigators said he threatened to shoot anyone who interfered and made statements indicating he intended to kill officers, escalating what began as threatening messages into what police treated as a credible danger to responding personnel.
A Brief Appearance, Then a Locked Door
Police said Pino briefly stepped outside his apartment before going back inside and refusing to open the door, according to investigators. That refusal left officers at an impasse outside the residence, unable to safely make contact with a man who had just told them he wanted violence with police.
The breakthrough came from inside Pino's own family. His father provided a key to the apartment and gave police permission to enter, according to the same report. The father also told investigators he was afraid of his son because of his violent behavior, a detail that underscored how personal the standoff had become even before officers crossed the threshold.
Takedown and Transport to Jail
Once inside, officers located Pino and informed him that he was under arrest. He resisted when officers attempted to handcuff him, tucking his hands underneath his body to prevent them from securing him, and officers took him to the ground to complete the arrest, per the report.
Police then transported Pino to the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center. A judge found probable cause at his court appearance and set his bond at $15,500, the station reported.
What Florida Law Says About Threats
Under Florida Statutes section 836.10, sending or transmitting a writing or electronic record that threatens to kill or do bodily harm is a second-degree felony. That same statute specifies that an electronic record does not include a telephone call, a distinction that matters given that Pino's alleged threats came through both calls and text messages.
A separate 2023 report from Local10 described a Hialeah man named Pino who allegedly pointed an AR-15 at two people during a dispute over a blocked sidewalk before being taken into custody. It is not established whether that individual is the same Ariel Pino arrested this week.
