A man who was holding a woman hostage with a machete was shot and killed by police in North Miami Beach.
The incident happened on the first floor of an office building in the area of Northeast 168th Street and Northeast 2nd Avenue.
North Miami Beach Police Chief Harvette Smith said officers responded to the building around 1:30 p.m. after getting a 911 call of a man walking around with a large machete.
Officers arrived and encountered the man who was holding the machete. He refused officers' commands and ran into the building after officers tased him, Smith said.
At one point, the man was holding a woman hostage with a machete pointed at her neck, Smith said.
Officers ordered the man to drop the weapon but when he continued to refuse to drop it, officers opened fire, Smith said.
"The machete was pointed at her neck, in an attempt to kill her. At that point, our officers again gave commands for the subject to drop the knife. The subject refused to drop the knife at that point, making my officers result to using deadly force to save a life," Smith said.
The woman was recovered as officers tried to give life-saving measures to the suspect, Smith said.
The suspect died from his injuries. Family members later identified him as 38-year-old Edridge Alexis.
No officers were injured and the woman was also okay, Smith said.
"He’s a good guy. They can’t tell me he had a machete and tried to cut people throat," said Wilkinson Alexis, the suspect's brother. "Nah, he ain’t like that."
