Miami Beach Police Search For Unidentified Man Posing As Armed Police Officer – WSVN 7News | Miami News, Weather, Sports

MIAMI BEACH, FL. (WSVN) – A man accused of posing as a police officer is on the run after a gunshot and pepper spray went to his face in an alley at a meeting in South Beach, all caught on security video that has been released received exclusively from 7News.

“Why do you have a gun?” said a guard. “Get out.”

Footage from August 3 showed a security guard at Mango’s Tropical Cafe South Beach at the intersection of Ninth Street and Collins Avenue interacting with a man wearing a backpack on his chest and what appeared to be a pistol in his hand.

“They’re going to shoot everyone, you don’t know that,” said a tourist who watched the bizarre encounter with her 13-year-old nephew from the window of her room at the Sherbrooke Hotel. “I saw the man and I saw him screaming, ‘I’m a cop.'”

After the security guard asked the man why he had a gun, the security guard approached and sprayed the unidentified man with what appeared to be pepper spray.

The situation got even more bizarre when the man started revealing what he does for a living. After being sprayed, the man yelled back, “I’m a cop, you [expletive].”

“Oh, all right, well…” said the guard.

But he didn’t believe it because the man kept repeating it.

“Here’s a gun… Take the police to the back alley,” the guard said.

The shooter then shouted “Mossad,” that’s the Israeli secret service that he says he’s also a member of, before he ran away.

The unidentified man has not been seen since.

After that, Miami Beach police showed up and later told 7News that the man in the video wasn’t one of them.

“He said he was a cop,” the police guard said.

Mitch Novick’s hotel cameras captured the chaos.

“Claims he’s a police officer,” Novick said. “It could have been a deadly situation quickly and easily.”

Mango told 7News that they are aware of the situation but prefer not to comment.

The Miami Beach Police Department issued a statement that said, among other things, “…officers sounded a BOLO (be alert) alert over the police radio and searched the area to locate the suspect.”

“South Beach isn’t what it used to be. I’ve been going there for over 20 years and it’s gotten to the point where you don’t want to go there anymore,” the witness said. “It’s so scary.”

Anyone with information about the unidentified man is asked to call the Miami Beach Police Department at 305-673-7901.

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