MIAMI-DADE, Fla. -- Miami-Dade police were patrolling a neighborhood looking for robbery-related activity, when an encounter led to shooting that left a man wounded in his genitals.

Police said they noticed two men in car in the area of Northwest 12th Street and Second Avenue that were behaving suspiciously. They said that they saw one of the men exchange a shiny object of some kind with another person, and they thought it was a gun. The Miami-Dade officers called for backup. The officers pulled over the vehicle, and they said that when they approached the car, the man in the passenger seat reached for something under the seat.

The officers said they told the man to put his hands up, and when he didn't, an officer shot him. The man was hit in the groin.

The wounded man was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital. His injuries were not life-threatening.

Police said that under the circumstances, the officer was shooting to kill because he believed that the man was reaching for a weapon, so they said the man was actually lucky to only have been wounded.

The officer who fired is a 10-year veteran of the force, according to Miami-Dade police.

A search of the car found no weapon, but detectives said on the floor of the vehicle they found a car radio that they believe the man may have been reaching for. Detectives said they think the radio was stolen.