Miami Gardens Police Shooting Video Released by Victim's Lawyers
Police appear to say get on the "ground or you’re dead" before Lavall Hall shot.
— -- Attorneys for the family of a man shot and killed by police in Miami Gardens earlier this year released 19 minutes of dash-cam video today that they say indicates the man was being pursued by police and told to get on the ground before he was shot by police.
Lavall Hall, 25, was shot on the morning of Sunday, Feb. 15, after his mother, Catherine Daniels, reportedly called police for what she said were her son’s mental issues. She has said her son had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and she hoped police would take him to a mental health facility, according to Fusion.
His lawyers said Hall was holding a broomstick and dressed only in his underpants.
“In the video, you’ll see Lavall runs away from the officers," an attorney for the family Glen Goldberg said at a news conference today before screening the video in which the actual killing is never seen. “The officers had made up their minds that they were going to kill Lavall before this incident took place."
One of the family's attorneys said: “The police officers were advised that they were dealing with someone with mental issues,” adding that the police used “excessive force" after Hall ran away from them and an officer appears in the video to instruct Hall to get on the "ground or you’re dead.”
As for the official probe, attorney Judd Rosen said, "We have heard nothing about the investigation."
Daniels, Hall's mother, said at the news conference, “I never thought they [were] going to kill my child, murder my child,” adding she was "devastated” when she first saw the video.
“He was standing outside just holding the broomstick in his hand,” Daniels said. “And I told him, ‘Baby, come back inside, it’s cold.”
As the video played at the news conference, one of the attorneys for the family said Daniels can be heard telling police before the shooting, “Please don’t hurt my child, please.”
A spokesman for Florida State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle told ABC News that the investigation is ongoing and they have concerns the video may endanger the investigation into the incident, but the office could not stop the family from releasing the video.
"We investigate every police use of force as a potential criminal case, and that’s why the premature release of this video may well interfere with the investigation," the spokesman told ABC News.
Miami Gardens police have declined to comment beyond a written statement Tuesday night that the "City of Miami Gardens released video from the dashboard camera of a city vehicle, as well as the video from the rear camera of a City of Miami Gardens vehicle. The release of these videos represents the Department's complete response to Ms. Daniels' request."
But the police department issued a Feb. 15 news release at the time of the incident in which it expressed condolences to the victim's family, also saying "we know that at approximately 5:00 a.m. Miami-Dade County 911 dispatched a call to Miami Gardens PD regarding a violent mentally disturbed male subject. Our police officers responded to the caller's residence and subsequently encountered the male subject. The individual failed to comply with our officers' verbal instructions and, instead, engaged them in a physical altercation using an object."
Meanwhile, Hall’s family filed a wrongful death lawsuit last month in federal court in Miami against the city of Miami Gardens, including the two Miami Gardens police officers Peter Ehrlich and Eddo Trimino. An attorney for the two officers Oscar Marrero gave the following statement to ABC News:
“This civil lawsuit is premature, but the officers welcome the opportunity to have all the testimony and physical evidence evaluated in the courtroom. There is a process to properly investigate cases. The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office is an independent agency and it is conducting a comprehensive investigation.
"The officers were faced with a dangerous situation. They have already given statements to investigators indicating Mr. Hall struck them with a weapon and deadly force was used. The reasonableness of a particular use of force must be judged from the perspective of a reasonable officer on the scene. The reliable evidence will establish Officers Trimino and Ehrlich acted appropriately.”