CBS4 Exclusive: Brownsville Mom Speaks After Teen Son's Arrest, Shots Fired By Police

MIAMI (CBSMiami) - A 17-year-old teenager is in custody after the Miami-Dade Police Special Response Team executed a warrant for firearms and shots were fired.

Miami-Dade Police say the teen was not only armed but he was also on probation for a previous gun charge that happened last year.

The teen's mother Carla Vasquez took CBS4's Peter D'Oench for an exclusive tour of her home at N.W. 22nd Ave. and 48th St. across from Brownsville Middle School and spoke out about the incident that happened around 5:50 in the morning.

She showed CBS4 damage to one of her walls and a bullet hole on the 2nd floor.

"Four shots were fired by police," she said. "They just said they had a search warrant. I don't know why and where it was coming from. If they would have knocked on the door I would have let them because I don't have anything to hide. If my son had pulled a gun on them, he would have been dead. As far as I know, he did not have any weapons. I feel there was no need for this. I realize that police have a job to do but this was an overload. They took my 17-year old away and I don't know what is happening."

No one was hurt and police say the teenager did not fire at them. They did say they recovered a weapon.

Miami-Dade police Detective Alvaro Zabaleta said, "Once the Special Response team gained access they were confronted by armed juveniles, and shots were fired."

He said police convinced the youngster to surrender after he had barricaded himself on the 2nd floor.

His mother said, "He didn't barricade himself. He was sleeping at the time."

Zabaleta said, "We discovered that this individual is on probation for a previous firearms charge that occurred this year."

Zabaleta said he could not say how many shots were fired or if other weapons were recovered.

At least 9 people were inside the home. Vasquez said she was there with her 17-year-old son and his girlfriend and her 17-year-old nephew and 1 1/2-year-old and 3-month-old grandsons and her two daughters, who are 23 and 21 years old, and her grandmother.

It will be up to the Miami-State Attorney's Office to decide if the teen will be prosecuted as an adult.

He faces charges of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, possession of a weapon by a convicted felon, tampering with physical evidence and grand theft.

Steadman Stahl, the President of the South Florida PBA, told D'Oench that this is a reminder of how dangerous it can be to execute search warrants.

"That is a very dangerous job," he said. "For them to be confronted by someone with a firearm, that is the worst fear of an officer. My advice to bad guys out there is if you point a gun at an officer I can promise you there will be return fire. These are incredible times we are living in right now and just in the last couple of weeks with the number of police-involved shootings."

Stahl vividly remembers what happened on January 20th of 2011 when 44-year-old Miami police officer Armando Haworth and 41-year-old Miami-Dade police officer Roger Castillo were shot and killed while executing an arrest warrant for a career criminal. Their names are on a bench outside Miami-Dade Police Headquarters in Doral that is next to a haunting Butterfly Garden.

Stahl said police are on guard after some recent incidents.

On October 17th, Hollywood police officer Yandy Chirino was shot and killed during an altercation with 18-year-old suspected car burglar Jason Banegas.

On October 22nd, Doral police got into a shootout with 25-year-old Yordany Perez who was killed. Johnny Beautelus, 31, was shot in the chest, arm and leg. He was wearing a bulletproof vest and that may have saved his life. Daniel Vilarchao, 21, was wounded by shrapnel or flying glass.