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Jun 20, 2009 10:08 pm US/Eastern
Miami Beach Officer Investigated In Two Shootings
EXCLUSIVE: Watch The Unedited Surveillance Video Of The Shooting In The Video Player On The Right Hand Side
MIAMI BEACH (CBS4) ―
The same Miami Beach police officer who shot a tourist from Virginia is also reportedly responsible for firing at a man police say carjacked a taxi driver four days later.
Investigators said the suspect died at the hospital.
Miami Beach police officer Adam Tavss was apparently one of two officers involved in a second police shooting on June 18th. The second officer Frank Celestre and Tavss are now on administrative leave. The news saddened Samir Shehada, the brother of Husein Shehada who apparently died from the officer's bullet on Sunday.
Samir was walking with Husein near 11th Street and Washington Avenue after leaving a nearby club on Sunday. A surveillance video shows the last moments of Husein's life.
"He didn't do anything wrong he didn't make any quick movements it just didn't seem like there's any justification," Samir Shehada said in a phone interview from Virginia with CBS4's Tiffani Helberg. "He was my best friend. We talked everyday. We hung out all the time and to just see him alive again for the last few moments that he was on this earth it hurt me a lot."
He added, "It made me feel terrible simply terrible because it's like they didn't take my brother's killing, you know, serious enough to keep him off the street to do a proper investigation."
The Shehada family attorney John Contini said the video says it all.
"They hear the officers yelling at them they stop they attempt to comply and immediately he is blown away right there he is executed right there," Contini said. "He never made a threat of movement he never reached for any sort of weapon."
But the Miami-Dade County Police Benevolent Association President John Rivera said there's more to consider.
"For somebody to Monday morning quarterback with all the luxury of time to second guess somebody who had a split second is not a just thing to do," Rivera said. "This vantage point is not the same as what a police officer saw. If the lawyer is trying to suggest that a hand can't move without a shoulder moving, then he needs to provide that medical document because I think I can move my hands without moving my shoulders."
Miami Beach police say Tavss was placed on a leave of absence until Thursday. That's when he returned to patrol the streets.
Miami Beach police Detective Juan Sanchez, said a taxi driver was carjacked late Thursday at 3rd Street and Alton Road on South Beach by a man armed with a gun. The suspect hit Toussaint in the head with the gun and took off with his taxi, said police.
The carjacker then fled across the causeway, which links Miami Beach and downtown Miami, but he was driving west toward Miami while in the eastbound lanes, against traffic.
Police said the man crashed head-on into another car, and jumped from the taxi in an effort to flee police. When he got out of the taxi, he exchanged gunfire with officers. He was hit and taken to Ryder Trauma Center where he was pronounced dead.
Meanwhile, about a dozen members organized by an Arab-American group held a rally in front of the Miami Beach Police department Friday night in the wake of last weekend's deadly shooting Shehada; they want answers and they want accountability on behalf of the police department.
The group was demanding the department release surveillance video of the shooting to the public and they also want the officer to be jailed while the police department's internal affairs office investigates the shooting. The group also demands that an independent investigation be carried out by someone other than internal affairs and the state attorney's office.
The Palestinian-American tourist who died is 29-year-old Husien Shehada, who was reportedly shot by a Miami Beach police officer around 4 a.m. Sunday in front of Twist nightclub on 11th Street and Washington Avenue. His family says Shehada, who was visiting from Virginia, was not armed, but police paint another picture.
Police said they got a call about two men fitting the description of Husien and his brother Samir Shehada walking around near the club with guns.
When both men were stopped by a Miami Beach police officer, they were "very clearly" ordered to show their hands, but they did not, according to Club Twist security guard Derek Reynolds as he stated in a police report obtained by CBS4 news partner
The Miami Herald.
Reynolds further said in the report that Husien tried to reach "for something he was concealing" and that's when the officer opened fire. A second security guard at the club also told police the brothers failed to comply with the officers' order to surrender.
The surveillance video that the protestors are requesting be released to the public was acquired by CBS4 through the victim's attorney John Contini. The video shows the brothers walk into the frame and then they turn and walk to the edge of the curve. You eventually see one of them get shot and fall out of the frame.
The family attorney showed up at the crime scene Thursday afternoon, where he said Husien was "executed" after being surrounded by seven Miami Beach police officers.
"He was walking down the street with his brother and he was surrounded by the seven officers who yelled at him to put his hands up," said Contini. "And they were cursing. We're outraged. Obviously it is not safe for people to come to South Beach because of the chance that they'll be executed, frankly. It was nothing but an execution. He had no gun."
Contini said the brothers were vacationing in South Florida with their girlfriends.
"Their dream vacation turned into a nightmare. Instead of being up front about their horrific mistake, the Miami Beach Police department appears to be engaging in a cover up," said Contini.
Samir was arrested the night his brother died after he was accused of hitting his girlfriend. According to The Herald, Samir's girlfriend denies that she was struck by Samir. The Shehada family just can't understand how this all happened.
Miami Beach police have released little information on the incident, including the officer's name, which was finally revealed Friday night.
The Miami Beach Police Department's Internal Affairs unit and the Miami-Dade State Attorney's office are investigating the shooting.
A prominent Arab rights group, The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, has also questioned whether the shooting was racially motivated. They say police asked witnesses whether Husien was "Arabic," or if he was speaking Arabic.
CBS4 News has requested a copy of the police report and the identity of the officer involved in the shooting along with any 911 calls that may have been made from the area around the club that night.
Friday's vigil was organized by the South Florida Palestine Solidarity Network along with other groups, including Jewish Voice for Peace-South Florida.
CBS4'S Peter D'Oench & Tiffani Helberg contributed to this report.
(© MMIX CBS Television Stations. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. CBS4 news partner The Miami Herald contributed material for this report)
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