The area mentioned is known for all kinds of gang shootings where innocent teens and children have been shot and some fatally. Recently an 18 month old was hit while inside the home. This area is often shown on The First 48 on A&E.

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Police fatally shoot armed robbery suspect in Liberty City.

By JENNIFER LEBOVICH AND CHARLES RABIN
jlebovich@MiamiHerald.com
Miami police working with federal agents shot and killed a man early Friday morning, saying he was a robbery suspect armed with a shotgun when confronted by officers.
It's the fourth time in six weeks that Miami police have been involved in a fatal shooting, and the second time in nine days that Miami police Officer Ricardo Martinez fired a weapon at a man who was killed.

Police policy mandates an officer is off the streets for three days and isevaluated by a psychologist before returning to work following a shooting. Miami Police Chief Miguel Exposito cleared the 11-year veteran to return to work earlier this week.

``He is a very good officer,'' Exposito said. ``He was cleared to go back to work, and there's no problem.''

Police have not released the name of the man shot and killed in Friday's incident. Special agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement were working with Miami police doing surveillance related to a gang investigation, Temple Black, an agency spokesman said in a statement. He would not release the agent's name, citing an ongoing investigation.

On Aug. 11, Martinez fatally shot Joell Lee Johnson, 16, during a robbery sting in Overtown. The teen allegedly pointed a gun at officers posing as Chinese food delivery men, following an armed robbery the day before.

It was the fourth shooting since July in which a Miami police officer fatally shot someone, three of the shootings coming in the past two weeks.

Said the police chief: ``Sometimes you could go months, even years without a confrontation and then, in a short time span, you'll have two or three of these shootings. Those are things we can't control. The offender's action dictates that situation.''

Miami Mayor Tomás Regalado called the police shootings in such a short time span a coincidence. But he said cops are flooding crime hot spots.

``That's by design,'' he said.

Just after midnight Friday, the officers were in plainclothes in the area of Northwest 58th Street and 14th Avenue. The officers were doing proactive patrols, trying to get weapons off the streets, Exposito said.

A man told officers he had been robbed by two men on bicycles and that at least one of them was armed.

Martinez and the federal agent saw the men on bicycles, one carrying a shotgun.

``There was a confrontation with our officer and the federal agent,'' Exposito said. ``I can only assume the individual made a movement with the shotgun.''

The second man ran off and police set up a large search area for him. A few hours later, police found the man. They also found a firearm in the area where he was arrested, Exposito said, adding authorities believe he was armed as well.

Investigators were still talking to the man, who will likely be charged with armed robbery and in the death of the man killed by police.

Friday morning the yellow crime scene tape still stretched across Northwest 58th Street.

Ten bright green cones were clustered in an oval on the ground in front of Willie Stephenson's yellow house in the 1400 block of Northwest 58th Street.

Stephenson, 54, said he heard at least seven shots. He waited a minute, then came outside the house and saw the man on the ground on his back.

Then he saw paramedics.

He said he saw two bicycles spread a short distance apart along with a shotgun on the ground.

About the neighborhood, he said: ``It's just dangerous, period. But the youth don't have a place to go. There's got to be a solution.''

``There's more guns. All of us know there's a need for police,'' said Stephenson, who has lived in the home for 38 years.

On Saturday, police shot and killed Gibson Junior Belizaire, 21, of Miami after a call about a domestic violence incident.

Officers searching for Belizaire's older model, gold Jaguar pulled him over in the area of Northwest Second Avenue and 62nd Street in Little Haiti.

Belizaire stopped, got out of the car and began firing at officers, who returned fire. He ran and police searched for him. About an hour and a half later, K-9 tracked him down behind a building. He fired on SWAT officers, who returned fire, police said.