A man is dead after a Miami Gardens police officer shot and killed him outside a home Friday afternoon. Police remained on scene for hours as they investigated what led to the shooting.

Neighbors told CBS News Miami they heard anywhere from three to nearly a dozen shots.

“And one minute later, there were 30 cop cars come by, every type of car,” neighbor Bryan Delpozo said.

Delpozo has lived for years near Northwest 182nd Street and 35th Avenue. He said he has never felt unsafe despite other shootings in the past.

“It’s kind of scary to be honest cause it’s so close by and not so long ago happen like a couple houses down too that’s kind of scary,” he said.

Another neighbor, who did not want to be identified, said in Spanish she was “super worried because you can be outside and something like this can happen.”

Police say they encountered a person in crisis

The shooting happened just before 4 p.m., a time when many people were getting home from work or school. Chopper 4 captured a large police presence and a yellow tarp in the backyard, where officers say they encountered a person in crisis.

“They saw this person that had a weapon,” Miami Gardens Police Chief Delma Noel‑Pratt said. “There was potentially another person that was on the scene that they [saw fit] that they needed to protect that person that was on the scene.”  

Unclear how many officers fired

Miami Gardens police and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement worked late into the night, even bringing in a mobile command center as they tried to determine what led up to the shooting.

“And we are not sure if there was one officer or two officers that fire fired their weapon at this time,” Noel‑Pratt said.

When asked for more information about the officers involved and their years of service, the chief said the department is still working through the details.

FDLE leading the investigation

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is now leading the investigation, which is standard when an officer fires a weapon.