Five years later, this South Florida fatal police shooting remains under investigation
Homestead Police Officer Anthony Green, from inside his patrol car, shot and killed Edward Foster II at an intersection five years ago. Police said Foster was armed with a 9mm pistol. His family doesn’t believe he was a threat.
Whatever really happened, the public doesn’t yet know the details of the investigation. The reason: the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office has yet to conclude its probe.
The long-running investigation has come under scrutiny again. As part of the nationwide protests of police brutality against blacks, activists in Homestead last weekend also pointed to a sometimes rocky relationship with the department. Protesters at a rally Sunday singled out Green, who has been involved in — and cleared — in two other fatal shootings, as well as longtime Homestead Police Chief Al Rolle, the longest serving black chief in Miami-Dade County.
Demorion Lee, the lead organizer of the protest, blasted the five-year delay in the shooting probe.
“We are met with hostility and closed doors every time we ask questions,” Lee told the rally. “I’m not a lawyer but something tells me that’s wrong.”
Five years is a lengthy delay even by the standards of Miami-Dade, where it’s not unusual for police-shooting investigations by prosecutors to drag on for years before inevitably clearing officers.
During her 27 years in office, Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle has filed plenty of cases of police misconduct but never any against officers in a fatal shooting. Over the decades, few state prosecutors have either — Florida law gives officers broad leeway to use deadly force, even allowing cops to shoot suspected felons who are fleeing under the assumption they may harm others.
The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office confirmed Tuesday that the investigation of the Foster shooting is still ongoing because “there were additional potential witnesses and potential evidence the family and their lawyers wished reviewed.”
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“After each request, [police] and our office conducted additional investigations and spoke to additional witnesses. Most of these additional leads were derived through exploration of various social media sources. We are still investigating today, trying to locate an individual who indicated online that he was an eyewitness to the shooting.”
Civil court filings say prosecutors were about to close the case in February, but continued the probe after the Foster family pointed them to the Instagram page of that purported witness, known only as “Chapo Gutierrez,” who’d posted on social media about the case, according to one motion.
“If the witness is located, the State Attorney’s Office will determine if this witness has personal knowledge of any facts that would affect the outcome of the investigation,” according to a document filed by lawyers involved on both sides of the wrongful-death lawsuit filed by Foster’s family.
The civil lawsuit has been voluntarily dismissed, but can be refiled after the state finishes its probe.
Unlike in other counties, where grand juries decided on charges, Miami-Dade prosecutors author detailed memos explaining if an officer was justified or not in using force. For years, the office has been criticized for long delays in finishing probes into police shootings, and it’s vowed to speed up the process, to give answers to families of those shot and police officers as well.
Fernandez Rundle is running for reelection against former prosecutor and American Civil Liberties Union deputy director Melba Pearson, who is running on a campaign of criminal justice reform. Fernandez Rundle’s record on police-abuse cases has become a rallying point for opponents. She has pointed to a slew of use-of-force cases filed recently, including the conviction of North Miami Police Officer Jonathon Aledda, who shot at an autistic man holding a silver toy truck, and Miami Officer Lester Bohnenblust, who slammed down a nurse supervisor.
Fernandez Rundle’s office is also prosecuting Homestead Police Officer Lester Brown, who was captured on surveillance video ramming the head of a Hispanic man into the wall of a cell. He is awaiting trial.
Chief Rolle, in a statement issued Sunday, defended his force.
“The Homestead Police Department takes all of its complaints extremely seriously and we are proud to say that the members of our agency have stepped up to the plate on several occasions to report and advise when one of their own is suspected of not following the rules,” Rolle said.
Homestead, home to about 70,000 people, is a predominantly Hispanic South Miami-Dade city where almost 25 percent of people live in poverty.
Foster, an African-American father of six, died in Homestead July 2015. At the time, Foster was on probation for attempted murder and armed robbery.
His family said he had just left a Dollar Store. About 4 p.m., police said, 911 dispatchers got a call about someone walking around with a gun. When Green arrived at the intersection of Southwest 328th Street and 187th Avenue, near a partially built building and close to a Dollar Store, some type of confrontation ensued with Foster.
At the time, his sister claimed she believed Foster “was on his hands and knees with his hands up.” A police union official said: “The officer was in fear for his life. There was a gun pointed at the officer.”
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Green, who is white and has been with the police department for three decades, was no stranger to deadly force.
In 2005, Green shot and killed an unarmed man named Jason Williams during a struggle outside a convenience store. He claimed Williams was reaching for his gun, and prosecutors cleared him of any wrongdoing.
Two years later, he shot and killed Anthony Cinotti, a convicted murderer who police believe was trying to woo back his girlfriend. Green shot Cinotti, police contend, when Cinotti pulled out a knife and stabbed his girlfriend and her 11-year-old son. Again, Green was cleared of any wrongdoing.
A year later, in 2008, Green fired his weapon again. This time he shot at a burglary suspect in what was described as an armed robbery. The suspect was shot twice in the stomach and survived.
During Sunday’s protest, one activist called Green “Homestead’s own Derek Chauvin” — the Minneapolis police officer charged with murdering George Floyd. Miami-Dade Police Benevolent Association President Steadman Stahl defended Green as a cop “who works in a very dangerous area” and stressed that Foster pointed a gun at the officer.
“No police officer ever wants to take a life, unfortunately, the situations that they find themselves in dictate that they must protect themselves and others,” Stahl said in a statement.
This story was originally published June 9, 2020 at 1:33 PM.
