Jun 29, 2009 7:49 pm US/Eastern
Forced To Fire?
MIAMI BEACH (CBS4) ―
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Lawrence McCoy Jr.
Courtesy Of The McCoy Family/CBS
Lawrence McCoy is accused of beating a cabbie in the head with a gun, stealing his cab and shooting at police; Monday lawyers hired by his family say police have it all wrong. They say McCoy is the victim of an overzealous police shooting.
All this was announced after McCoy's family met with Miami Beach Police investigators last week. McCoy's father, Lawrence McCoy Senior, said police told him they did not find a gun associated with his son. It's a statement police now deny to
CBS 4 News.
"They had contradicting stories about what happened," said McCoy. "But what we learned is that he was shot down like a dog just murdered in the street."
McCoy's father said his son was homeless, suffered from bi-polar disorder and was afraid of guns. The McCoys hired Gregory Samms, part of the legal team for Husein Shehada. He was a tourist from Virginia who police killed as he was walking unarmed with his brother, just four days before the McCoy shooting. Miami Beach Police said Officer Adam Tavvs killed Shehada and he was one of three officers involved in the McCoy shooting.
Back at the morgue, McCoy's legal team took photos of the bullet wounds.
"There's a number of shots that are excessive," said Samms. "Some of the wounds appear to be defensive wounds where he's holding up his arms to try to stop the shots from hitting his person and his arms are taking the shots as well. And there's some shots that are from the back."
In all, Samms said McCoy was shot 9 to 11 times.
So the mystery continues. Did McCoy have a gun, and whose gun was it?
CBS4 News asked the cab driver who was allegedly assaulted by McCoy. He did not want to be identified, but he said it was McCoy's gun and that McCoy beat him repeatedly in the head with the weapon. It's a statement that doesn't seem to concern the McCoy legal team.
"Whether or not that was true, that was a long time before the shots where the officers were fired," said Samms. "If in fact the cab driver was attacked, what is the basis for the shots at the time? There's multiple shots, 9 to 11 shots unarmed fleeing in the back. You tell me what has that got to do with the moment of the shooting because that's what's really relevant here."
Police are also looking into the moment of the McCoy and Shehada shootings.
"Both incidents resulted in deadly force because of the actions of the offenders at the time when the officers confronted them," said Det. Juan Sanchez with Miami Beach Police.
CBS4 News asked Sanchez to describe those actions and he said he was unable to do so.
Miami Beach police also failed to provide
CBS4 News with the internal affairs files for Officer Adam Tavvs and Officer Frank Celestre, the two officers named in the McCoy shooting.
CBS4 News has been requesting those files for a week and police said they plan to provide them in the future. However, the department did allow CBS4 News to view the two officers' personnel files. Both had accolades to note as well as good ratings. Police say Tavvs and Celestre are both on desk duty now.
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