Wild video: Florida cop clings to hood of moving car, shoots through windshield on busy downtown street in broad daylight

Wild video shows a Miami police officer clinging to the hood of a moving car and firing though the windshield — and it all took place on a busy downtown street in broad daylight Sunday.

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Miami Police said a 21-year-old driver hit an officer who was directing traffic, after which the officer shot the driver who was soon hospitalized with multiple gunshot wounds, the Miami Herald reported.

‘I feel he was wrongfully shot multiple times in his vehicle with no weapon.’

Police said the incident took place along Biscayne Boulevard near Bayfront Park where a Caribbean music festival was taking place, WPLG-TV said.

“We know that a vehicle made physical contact with the officer,” Assistant Chief Armando Aguilar of the Miami Police Department told WFOR-TV. “As a result of that incident, shots were fired immediately.”

Cellphone video of the incident shows the officer on his stomach atop the BMW’s hood and firing three shots as the driver turns left. The driver then exits the car and begins to walk across a crosswalk with his hands up. Another video shows officers ordering the driver to roll over, WPLG reported, adding that blood stains are visible on his back before police handcuff him.

The driver has been identified as Menelek Emmanuel Clarke, the Herald said. He was taken to Ryder Trauma Center and was listed in stable condition, WFOR said.

A police spokesperson on Monday said “no further details will be provided as this remains an ongoing investigation” by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the paper reported, adding that it’s unclear if Clarke will face any charges.

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Incidentally, Clarke in October 2023 was charged with aggravated assault on an officer, resisting an officer with violence, and armed trespassing after Broward deputies said he brandished a gun when a deputy told him to leave a Lauderhill park, the Herald said. Clarke has pleaded not guilty, the paper added.

Sherylann Clarke — the driver’s sister who was sitting in the car’s back seat at the time of the incident — told WFOR, “I feel he was wrongfully shot multiple times in his vehicle with no weapon.”

She added to WFOR that “the patrol officer, we were all stopped, we were in the middle lane. He told everyone else to go with his hand — hand signaling that we can go. And then he stood in front of my brother’s car and shot him.”

She also told WPLG that they were looking for parking, and “it wasn’t intentional to hit him — no. The man moved with the car as he was going around him.”

WFOR said authorities are reviewing the officer’s body camera video and surveillance video from the area and that the officer involved was treated for minor injuries at a hospital and released.

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