MIAMI GARDENS, FL — An armed man returned fire and stopped an attacker who had opened fire on two people during a confrontation in Miami Gardens on Thursday, police said.

As reported by NBC6, officers responded to three separate scenes after the shooting: a CVS pharmacy, a Marathon gas station, and the Garden Vista apartments near Northwest 47th Avenue and 183rd Street.

The confrontation started before 1 p.m. Miami Gardens Police said a man allegedly battered his ex-girlfriend and was then confronted by her brother.

A third man stepped in during the altercation, police said. That is when the aggressor pulled a gun and fired multiple rounds at the two men.

The third man drew his own firearm and fired back, striking the attacker, according to police. The wounded man fled and was later found at the CVS with a gunshot wound.

Paramedics took him to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, officials said. The man he had fired on was taken to another hospital as a precaution.

Residents told NBC6 the gunfire erupted at the apartment complex. A worker at a nearby business, Dayhant Cadiz, said he heard the shots: “Boom, boom, boom, clicking the trigger multiple times.”

Police have not announced charges or released the names of anyone involved, and the case remains under investigation. But the sequence officers describe is one we see often: a man turned a domestic dispute into gunfire, and someone else with a firearm was there to end it before anyone was killed.