A man shot by police while firing a rifle to celebrate a new gun law has been arrested, police say
MIAMI (AP) — A South Florida man who was shot by police as he fired a rifle into the air to celebrate the state’s new open-carry gun law has been booked into jail after spending more than two months in the hospital, authorities said.
The 37-year-old old man was booked into the Miami-Dade County jail on Friday on 53 total charges, including felony counts of assault with a deadly weapon, resisting an officer with violence and possession of a short-barrel rifle, and 48 misdemeanor counts of discharging a weapon in public, according to court records.
Officers responded to an apartment complex on July 7 where they found a man in body armor firing a gun into the air, according to a Miami police arrest report. Witnesses later told officers that the man claimed he was celebrating the new law that went into effect on July 1.
An officer ordered the man to stop shooting and show his hands, but the man tried to run away, police said. The man turned his body toward the officer while trying to enter an apartment, and the officer opened fire, striking the man several times, police said. The man was taken to a local hospital, where he was being treated until his arrest.
Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is running for president, signed the law in April that allows anyone who can legally own a gun in Florida to carry one concealed without a permit.