Background: The Stop n Shop located at 49 Northeast 2nd Ave in Miami, Florida (Google Maps). Inset: Gonzalo Gonzalez (Miami Police Department).
A man is accused of pulling a gun on a clerk at a Miami deli, threatening responding police officers and claiming he was made “to kill Venezuelans.”
Gonzalo Gonzalez, 57, has been charged with displaying a firearm improperly and aggravated assault with the intention to commit a felony, as noted in Miami-Dade County jail records. He was taken into custody and placed in the county jail on Saturday.
The Miami Police Department reports that on that day, a man walked into the Stop n Shop deli at 49 Northeast 2nd Ave and approached the counter, as stated in an arrest report seen by Law&Crime. The individual allegedly set a backpack on the counter and requested a vape from the store clerk.
The clerk described that the man, later identified as Gonzalez, “reached into the backpack, pulled out a black firearm” believed to be a Glock, “and pulled back the slide.” Another person in the store, a woman, informed investigators that she became frightened, dropping to the floor behind the counter upon seeing the firearm.
The clerk asked the man to put the gun away, and Gonzalez complied by returning it to his backpack. However, this did not signify the end of the encounter.
Gonzalez reportedly said he did not wish to speak with the clerk because the clerk “was from Venezuela,” and he also claimed to be “the god from Israel” before leaving the store in a northward direction, as described in the report.
Authorities were alerted to watch for Gonzalez, and police officers who responded to the scene verified the witnesses’ stories through surveillance video. Interestingly, it was not the police who first spotted Gonzalez again, but the store clerk, who rushed to the officers’ car, tapped on the window, and pointed out the man who had brandished the firearm.
Officers tracked Gonzalez down and held him at gunpoint while restraining him in handcuffs, the report says. They then searched Gonzalez’s backpack, allegedly finding a “black handgun consistent” with the gun the clerk described.
Furthermore, the officers reportedly found “several gold and silver coins encased in plastic, like those found in jewelry stores, antique shops, or pawn shops.”
Another officer arrived at the scene of Gonzalez’s arrest, apparently to help read the suspect’s Miranda rights in Spanish. However, as the officer attempted to speak, Gonzalez “repeatedly interrupted and stated that he did not need a lawyer,” the report states.
“God is my lawyer and I’m King David,” Gonzalez reportedly stated before he allegedly proceeded to make threats against the officers.
“The officer who placed handcuffs is going to die, and the officers that are involved in my arrest are going to die and their police vehicles will be engulfed in flames and all that will remain are their ashes,” Gonzalez is said to have declared.
The report concluded by saying the suspect “stated that he was put into this world to kill Venezuelans because they are attacking and killing Cubans.”
Gonzalez was jailed on a $5,000 bond.
