As the title states, last Friday the City of South Miami Swat team responded to the Shops at Sunset Place where they were told that there was a man carrying a rifle. From the Miami New Times story...
Police Swarm Sunset Place Because a Man Had an Umbrella
By Kyle MunzenriederPublished Fri., Feb. 15 2013 at 4:45 PM
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Dozens of police and a SWAT team swarmed the mall because they thought the umbrella-carrying man was in fact holding a rifle.
"It seemed like every single cop in Miami was right there," witness Kristina McGuire, 20, told NBC Miami.
"Miami police and SWAT team at Sunset Place! What's going on?" tweeted Alvaro Vega, according to The Miami Herald.
Managers called employees to inform them of the situation.
Meanwhile, students at the nearby University of Miami were warned at about 3:10 p.m. by the school's police department of the situation.
Of course, the fracas died down once authorities realized the guy was carrying an umbrella. It is rainy out today, after all.
"Nothing is going on," South Miami Major Ana Baixauli told The Herald in a bit of an understatement. "It was just a scare."
Considering all the crazy gunman shit that's been going on lately, it's hard to blame the South Miami PD for making this kind of mistake, on the other hand, I'm told that the PD has been practicing just such a scenario in this same mall over the last few months. Taking that into account as well as the fact that chief Orlando Martinez de Castro purchased 50 M16's and had them converted into semi automatic rifles, it makes you wonder if this wasn't a simple case of a bunch of amped up cops that were all dressed up and ready with no place to go? Also, why does a 30 member police department need 50 M16s to patrol a 2.5 square mile city? Who knows. I guess we should be thankful that the "gunman" was only carrying an umbrella, albiet one that allegedly had "a handle that could be mistaken for a firearm or some other kind of weapon" according to police. The moral of this story? DO NOT WALK INTO SOUTH MIAMI WITH AN UMBRELLA!
