Surveillance cameras outside a drug den captured a fatal shoot-out between police and suspected drug dealers with footage that looked eerily like something from a Quentin Tarantino movie.
The video starts with one suspected dealer, Gerardo Delgado, leaving the house. He pauses for a couple of moments on the porch while smoking a cigarette and then getting into a blacked out BMW sitting in the driveway.
No sooner has he closed the door of his vehicle than an unmarked Miami-Dade police car appears.
One detective, John Saavedra, walks up to the front door.
At that moment, a second man emerges from the house. Luis Estevanell, 60, points his hand to the sky, then lunges toward the street, drawing detectives away from the BMW.
As three cops surround Estevanell they are momentarily caught off guard by Delgado emerging from his car with a gun in his hand.
Suddenly gunfire erupts.
Saavedra returns fire, but then stumbles off screen after taking three shots to his gut.
Another detective Jorge Milan backs up toward the street off camera.
Delgado, wounded and hopping in pain, takes cover behind a tree in the circular driveway of the house in Coral Way, but continues firing his weapon toward the officers.
Through the tree branches, a bullet strikes him in the head. His gun flies out of his hand, he falls to the ground mortally wounded.
As Delgado writhes on the ground, another detective leads Estevanell to the street to be handcuffed.
Paramedics arrive and rush Saavedra to the hospital. Delgado dies at the scene.
In court Thursday, at an extended bail hearing for Estevanell, prosecutors played the video of the scene that unfolded in front of the West Miami-Dade home.
Police later found 80 pounds of marijuana inside the house, reports The Miami Herald.
Estevanell has been charged with second-degree felony murder, marijuana trafficking and cocaine possession. He is being held without bond
In Florida, anyone who commits a felony in which a death occurs - in this case, Delgado’s demise - can be held responsible for murder.
Detectives, acting on a tip, had placed the house under surveillance a few weeks before.
They had gone to the house on July 31, 2012 for a 'knock and talk' to see if they could get consent to search the property, Miami-Dade homicide Detective James Hatzis testified Thursday.
While not in patrol uniforms, the detectives wore vests printed with the word 'police,' and had badges and police radios.
Miami-Dade Det. John Saavedra, who suffered gunshot wounds to his abdomen hasn't returned to work and is still recovering from his injuries.
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