Jul 2, 2009 10:08 pm US/Eastern
Miami Beach Police Chief Talks About Shootings
MIAMI BEACH (CBS4) ―
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Lawrence McCoy Jr. was shot and killed by police on the MacArthur Causeway last month.
Courtesy Of The McCoy Family/CBS
Miami Beach's chief of police spoke out publicly for the first time since officers shot and killed civilians in two incidents last month.
On June 14th police shot and killed Husein Shehada, a tourist from Virginia, who it turns out was unarmed. Just four days later on the MacArthur Causeway police shot Lawrence McCoy, an alleged robber who carjacked a taxicab. The chief warned against rushing to judgment in either case during Thursday's press conference.
"In both these cases officers received dispatch calls received from the public that subjects were armed with weapons," said Chief Carlos Noriega.
911 tapes released Thursday seem to confirm a fatal misunderstanding in the shooting of the tourist from Virginia, whose death was captured on surveillance video shot right outside Twist nightclub on Washington Avenue.
"Two Hispanics wearing white t-shirts. It looks like one has a machine gun on him," said the caller to 911. "I seen it under the guys t-shirt."
And that's the report that went out to the street: "Attention all units, two subjects in white t-shirts, one armed with a machine gun…."
Surveillance videos of Shehada and his brother show one may have had something under his shirt, what turned out to be a beverage container of some sort. When the men were confronted by police and stopped, the officers almost instantly opened fire.
"An unarmed man was killed," said the victim's lawyer, Gregory Sams. "It's been confirmed by the police department that they were looking for a man with an AK-47, some type of huge assault weapon. And they shot a man with no weapons at all."
"Complainant advises that somebody just stole his taxi cab," said the dispatcher.
In the second fatal shooting case, police say 29-year-old McCoy robbed a cabbie, stole his cab and wrecked it on the causeway, exchanging gunfire with officers. Officer fished a pistol out of the bay two days after the shooting—a gun McCoy may have ditched before being shot.
"Police told the family members that they could not confirm that he had a weapon," said his attorney. "So the question is--yes, he committed a crime, but should he die for it? Should he be executed in the street for it?"
Officers are required to make split second decisions based on a variety of factors, and cannot afford to be hesitant or be wrong. It could be a while before we know just what happened in these fatal shootings. Police and prosecutors typically release no information until the case is closed, a process that can easily take a year or more.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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