Darwin Smiles

"Delbert Leroy Wells, 40, the would-be robber, lingered for two weeks at Jackson Memorial Hospital before succumbing to his wounds on Thanksgiving Day.

On Nov. 8, Miami police say, Wells was driving a white Dodge when he pulled up to the car of Patrick Laguerre on Northwest 75th Street and North Miami Avenue at about 12:20 a.m. He asked for directions.

As Laguerre was responding, Wells pulled out a nickel-plated lighter made to look like a gun.

Laguerre gave him some loose dollars, ''but [Wells] wanted more,'' according to a police report. Wells searched his pockets, fished through his wallet and got back into his own car.

But the wallet was empty.

Wells ''became irate, aiming the handgun at the victim, stated he was going to shoot,'' the police report said.

Laguerre took cover back in his own car, grabbed his own handgun and squeezed off three to four rounds.

Mortally wounded, Wells tried driving off. He crashed into a fence. While at Jackson Memorial Hospital, he was charged with armed robbery.

But Wells died on the Thanksgiving holiday -- delivering Miami homicide detectives a fresh case. Their investigation of the shooting is now under way.

''It seems the victim was defending himself,'' said Miami homicide Sgt. Jose ''Pepi'' Granado."

And it seems that in Miami, an officer CAN shoot someone who has attacked him with a motor vehicle. Unlike NYC where a car really couldn't harm anyone, now could it?...

"Authorities have also filed charges against a burglary suspect whose alleged cohort was shot to death by a Miami-Dade police officer Friday in Liberty City.

Daniel Coleman, 43, faces charges of second-degree felony murder and burglary to an unoccupied dwelling.

Police say Coleman and Walter Herbert White, 48, nearly ran their van over an officer after stealing snacks from the Shell station at Northwest 79th Street and 22nd Avenue.

Fearing for his life, the unnamed officer fired at the van, hitting White, who was driving. The van careened through six lanes of traffic and a median before plowing into an all-night coin laundry."