Bodycam shows the moments Doral officers responded to a crime in progress at an apartment. NBC 6’s Jamie Guirola reports.
Police bodycam footage shows the tense moments a suspect fired gunshots at officers when they responded to an apartment in Doral.
Units from the Doral Police Department showed up Monday night to an apartment in Doral Manors on NW 85th Street, just blocks away from CityPlace, regarding a burglary in progress.
In the footage, released Wednesday, the officers are in tactical position in a hallway and feared there was an active shooter and victims inside the apartment, an arrest report stated.
"Put your hands up and open the door," an officer is heard saying. When they tried to gain entry, they were fired upon from the lone gunman near the balcony of the apartment.
Hours later, after a standoff with SWAT officers and the evacuation of dozens of residents, 34-year-old Sergio Van Kanten surrendered.
Van Kanten told investigators that he believed "Haitians with dreads were inside his apartment trying to kill him," a prosecutor said in Miami-Dade bond court Tuesday. He called 911 for assistance, but when he saw officers at his door, he shot at them.
Investigators said Van Kanten admitted to taking narcotics throughout the day and also confessed to shooting a marked Doral police unit in April.
He faces charges of attempted second-degree murder, use of a firearm while committing a felony and discharging a firearm in public.
The judge ruled preliminary probable cause with a hold on bond.
