Unarmed man shot by police plans to sue
MIAMI - A rash of police-involved shooting deaths -- eight young black men have been killed by police in the last 10 months...
BY JANIE CAMPBELL
NBC MIAMI
Attorneys for a survivor of one of the recent controversial police-involved shootings have filed a notice of intent to sue the City of Miami, police officers involved in the incident, and Police Chief Miguel Exposito.
Kareem Williams, 30, had just left Little River’s Take One Cocktail Lounge early on the morning of February 11 as a passenger in the vehicle of his cousin, 28-year-old Travis McNeal, when McNeal was stopped by police for running a red light and driving erratically.
Detective Reinaldo Goya fired into the car, shooting Williams three times and killing McNeal. The pair were unarmed.
His attorneys say Williams was left with permanent damage, and in a statement called the shooting unjustified.
A rash of police-involved shooting deaths — eight young black men have been killed by police in the last 10 months — has left Exposito in the hot seat. McNeal is one of at least two men believed to have been unarmed, and answers have been slow to come, if at all, from the police department.
In Williams’ case, police union chief Armando Aguilar has said that Det. Goyo saw something that “led him to fear for his life.” But after meeting with Exposito last week, McNeal’s mother Sheila said her family still lacked answers as to what would prompt police to open fire on two unnarmed men.
“He cares,” she said of the police chief. “I don’t know if he cares more about covering his own behind, or if he cares about what actually happened.”
The city manager has hired a retired FBI investigator to review the police department, the State Attorney’s Office is reviewing the shootings, the ACLU and NAACP have asked outside authorities to investigate, and Mayor Tomas Regalado and multiple city commissioners have called for Exposito’s dismissal or resignation.
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