HollyMatkinPinecrest, FL – A high-ranking female federal agent fatally shot a man who forced his way into her home early Monday morning, police said.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Chief Maria Otero, the head of the Miami office, was asleep in her home when an intruder shattered the glass doors of her residence and came inside at 1:29 a.m., the Miami Herald reported.
Chief Otero, 55, grabbed her .40 caliber Smith & Wesson duty weapon, and opened fire on the man, later identified as 28-year-old Robert Young.
“The subject was dead inside the residence,” Miami-Dade Police Department (MDPD) Sergeant Carlos Rosario told the Miami Herald.
Investigators have not determined why Young decided to target the residence, and the incident is still under investigation, Sgt. Rosario said.
“We’re still combing through the house,” he explained. “I have no information on the intruder being armed.”
Chief Otero has been in law enforcement for 25 years, CBP spokesman Michael Silva told the Miami Herald.
She has been placed on administrative leave, pending the outcome of the MDPD and Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation, WPLG reported.
Young was not unknown to the MDPD, and was awaiting a criminal mischief trial when he broke into the chief’s home, the Miami Herald reported.
He allegedly destroyed wine bottles inside a convenience store after the clerk refused to call 911 for him, and has been on probation twice for carrying a concealed weapon and grand theft.
Additional charges of battery and another concealed weapon offense were dismissed.
The home invasion marked the second time in a month that a law enforcement officer in the Miami-Dade area confronted an assailant at the officer’s residence.
Doral Police Traffic Officer Lieutenant Gary King, 70, and his wife were attacked in their driveway by two men on Jan. 16, and the lieutenant was ultimately shot in the arm.
Lt. Doral is recovering from his injuries, and the attacker has been arrested.