Miami-Dade Mayor, Police Director Honor Protesters Who Stopped Looters At CVS

MIAMI (CBSMiami) -- Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez honored two men Monday, after they took part in Sunday's peaceful protest in Downtown Miami and helped prevent some trouble makers from breaking into a CVS drugstore.

City and County leaders have been adamant about allowing people to protest peacefully to honor the memory of George Floyd and hundreds of people did just that on Sunday.

But when the protest was beginning to wrap up at its scheduled time, a group of people tried to break in to the CVS near the AmericanAirlines Arena.

Benjamin Torrens, a 29-year social studies teacher, and realtor Richard Dombroff, joined some other protesters in trying to keep the peace among ensuing chaos and stopped the would-be looters in their tracks.

Torrens said the group that first began throwing objects at the store were not part of the original protest that walked all around Miami that afternoon without any incidents.

Torrens and Dombroff were honored for their heroism and were given a Certificate of Achievement and Miami-Dade Police Department coin from Police Director Freddy Ramirez.

Mayor Gimenez says he wants to find all of the heroes who helped stop the looters and honor them in another ceremony in the future.