Riviera Beach couple witnesses Miami Beach Police Shootings

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. - Seven people including three Miami Beach police officers are in the hospital after two early morning shootings on Collins Avenue. Sgt. Alejandro Bello says the officers' injuries are not life-threatening.

Detective Jenny Velazquez tells The Miami Herald that details about Monday's shootings remain "very cloudy" due to the number of officers from different agencies helping patrol the South Beach crowds for the holiday weekend.

Velazquez says police opened fire in one shooting just before 4 a.m. when a driver got into an altercation with an officer. The driver was killed and four bystanders were injured.

In the second shooting, police say another driver accelerated toward an officer in a blocked-off area. The officer fired at the driver until he crashed, but no one was injured. The driver was arrested.

A Palm Beach County couple, Narces Benoit and his girlfirend, were enjoying a night on the town in Miami Beach when they happened to be on Collins Avenue and witnessed this police shooting, which was caught on video by a photographer and posted on You Tube.

Benoit recorded that same shooting with his cell phone camera. But he says a police officer ran over and grabbed his camera phone and smashed it.

"He didn't say nothing. He just snatched me by my head and threw me on the ground and stepped on my back, threw it on the floor, stepped on it and was cussing me out the whole time," said Benoit.

Benoit says he feels when police opened fire on that car in Miami Beach early Monday morning they overreacted, putting the lives of innocent bystanders in jeopardy, because someone could have been hit by stray gunfire.

"Yes they were runnin' and duckin'. A lot of people could've got shot. But thank god, a lot of people didn't," said Benoit.

The two of them say they had a very close call. But luckily were not hit by any gunfire.

Benoit says he plans to file a complaint against Miami Beach police for what he feels was excessive force. He says police also took cellphone cameras away from other bystanders nearby who had recorded the police shooting incident on Collins Avenue.