Chattanooga Times Free Press

Man injured in police shootout at Miami-area Trump resort

- BY JENNIFER KAY AND FREIDA FRISARO

DORAL, Fla. — Gunfire erupted early Friday at President Donald Trump’s Miami-area golf resort, as a Florida man shouting anti-Trump rhetoric fired into the hotel lobby’s chandelier and waited for police to arrive for what one official called an “ambush-type attack,” police said.

Five police officers from Miami-Dade County and the city of Doral exchanged gunfire with the man, injuring him, and quickly ended the threat at the Trumpowned Trump National Doral Golf Club, Miami-Dade Police Director Juan Perez said. “These officers did not hesitate one second to engage this individual that was actively shooting in the lobby of the hotel,” Perez said. “They risked their lives, knowing that they had to get in there to save lives in that hotel.”

Trump was not at the suburban golf resort at the time.

Perez identified the suspect as 42-yearold Jonathan Oddi, who lives in a condo building about a mile away.

Perez said Oddi took a flag from a flagpole at the resort and draped it over the counter in the lobby, where he pointed his gun at several people but only fired into the ceiling and light fixtures overhead until police officers arrived.

It was not immediatel­y clear how Oddi gained access to the resort grounds.

“We don’t know what his intentions were in the long term but we know what he was doing at the time — he was trying to engage our police officers in some kind of ambush-type attack,” Perez said.

In plotting the ambush, Perez added, “He did succeed — and he did lose.”

One Doral Police officer broke a wrist and the suspect suffered gunshot wounds in his legs in the incident, which began around 1:30 a.m., according to police. Video footage showed the conscious suspect being wheeled into a hospital on a gurney, and Miami-Dade Police spokesman Alvaro Zabaleta said Oddi was hospitaliz­ed in good condition Friday afternoon.

Eric Trump, the president’s son and executive vice president of the Trump organizati­on, tweeted early Friday, “A huge thank you to the incredible men and women” of the department­s, adding that “every day they keep our community safe.”

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