FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Early Sunday morning in Broward County, SWAT teams responded after a man barricaded himself inside a pawn shop.
That man allegedly threatened to get into a shootout with police.
Police said they received a call around 6 a.m. Sunday that someone was breaking into the Lucky Pawn and Jewelry shop on Davie Boulevard near Southwest 131st Avenue.
After a SWAT team arrived, a police negotiator was able to convince the man to come out, but authorities said the man reached for his waistband. The man was shot once with what police said was a “projectile.”
It is not clear whether he was shot with a rubber bullet or a pellet gun. Police only said it was a less-lethal use of force.
“We came out and the police was like, ‘you guys gotta go that way, go that way,’” said witness Nicole Brown. “All we know that guns was drawn and we was scared for our life too, because we don’t know what’s going on and who’s surrounding us.”
The man was moving as police carried him away.
Another witness told Local 10′s Madeleine Wright that he hopes the man involved in the incident isn’t a homeless man he knows from the area that is often walking around near the shopping center.
Police said the man was taken To Broward Health Medical Center and will eventually be transported to the main jail in Broward County.
There have been no updates on his medical status or any potential charges he will face.