MIAMI, Florida — A shootout erupted Thursday in a notoriously crime-ridden section of Miami as a team of heavily armed law enforcement agents tried to serve a warrant, leaving two officers and a suspect dead, authorities said.Miami-Dade Police Director James Loftus said the first officer, 21-year veteran Roger Castillo, had been shot once and died at the scene. The second officer, 23-year veteran Amanda Haworth, was taken to a hospital and died later from several gunshot wounds, Loftus said.Loftus said officers killed the suspect, 22-year-old Johnny Simms, who had been armed with a handgun.Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez said a squad of Miami-Dade police officers — who are part of the career criminal unit of the warrants division — was serving a homicide warrant in the city's impoverished Liberty City neighborhood. Loftus said officers knew Simms was inside the home — a duplex with bars on the windows — and told him to come out."This unit is very well-trained, very well-armed, and highly protects itself," said Alvarez, a former police chief. "So they know what they're doing. It was just a tragic incident that we see here too often in Miami-Dade, of a violent suspect who could care less."All the officers were wearing body armor and had clear police identification on them, Loftus said.
(photo credit: The Jerusalem Post)