MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – The Lewis family is grieving and they want answers.
Through tears, Angela Lewis said she was home in Miami Gardens when she felt her family was in danger before her son was killed on Thursday night.
“My daughter was beating on the back door saying someone was chasing them from the store,” Lewis said adding her daughter was with her cousin.
Lewis said her son, David Lewis, who is a father of two, died trying to protect his family from an unknown threat, near Northwest 161 Street and 27 Place.
“He just took two steps off the back porch and they shot him five times,” Lewis said on Friday.
The shooters were undercover Miami Gardens police officers and federal agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives who were investigating gang activity in the city after several shootings.
“I watched them kill my son,” Lewis said.
David Lewis was 27. There were two firearms next to his body, police said. The grieving mother said he was a registered gun owner.
Jafari Russel witnessed it all. He said he was driving the car that law enforcement followed at about 11 p.m., and it all could have been prevented if the police officers had identified themselves.
“No police lights on; just tinted-up vehicles,” Russel said. “I am terrified for my life! There are three cars; black tinted-up cars chasing us.”
Miami Gardens Chief Delma Noel-Pratt said the law enforcement team was doing a “pro-active” detail and they were shot at before they decided to return fire.
“For them to be so brazen to fire upon our law enforcement officials, two of my officers took it upon themselves to go ahead, and fire their weapon,” Noel-Pratt said.
The FBI took the lead in the investigation of the police-involved shooting. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement was also involved.