Miami Gardens fires cops after tussle with Black man. But the city won’t say why
Two Miami Gardens police officers involved in the rough arrest of a man at a RaceTrac gas station three months ago were fired last week when the police chief was informed of additional information that could be “criminal in nature,” she said.
Miami Gardens Police Chief Delma Noel-Pratt has not disclosed the nature of that information, only saying in a prepared statement that it had been forwarded to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
“The incident regarding the officers in question has been under investigation for the past few months, allowing for due process,” said the chief. “I terminated the officers because the behavior was egregious and will not be tolerated at the Miami Gardens Police Department. The matter is currently still an open active criminal investigation with FDLE and out of respect for their agency and the process, I am unable to provide further comment on this matter.”
Noel-Pratt fired officers Jaiver Castano and Jordy Yanes Martel on June 17. Both men had less than two years experience at the department. Castano is a former bail bondsman and Yanes Martel previously worked as a mechanic. FDLE Spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger confirmed Monday that there is an active and open investigation into the two former officers.
The man involved in the incident with the two officers, Miguel McKay, 35, was charged with resisting an officer without violence. The charge has since been dropped.
Castano and Yanes Martel appear to be the first officers to be formally let go over a use-of-force issue in South Florida since national protests have begun over the death of George Floyd under the knee of a white Minneapolis police officer.
Fort Lauderdale Police Officer Steven Pohorence was suspended late last month after cellphone video captured him smacking a seated protester and pushing her to the ground as he was making his way through a crowd of demonstrators. And another Fort Lauderdale officer is being investigated for firing a rubber bullet that struck a woman just above her eye, badly injuring her on the same evening when what had been a peaceful protest turned violent.
Andrew Axelrad, general counsel for the Police Benevolent Association which represents the officers, said it’s difficult to comment on the firings because the officers haven’t spoken with anyone in the department or had the reason for their dismissal explained to them.
“By terminating the officers without giving them any reason, the city has violated the officer’s rights under the collective bargaining agreement, Florida statutes and United States Supreme Court laws,” Axelrad said. “These rights are not complicated or lengthy, but they must be adhered to.”
In McKay’s arrest report, Yanes Martel said he was parked behind the RaceTrac gas station at 19100 NW Second Ave., on March 22, when he heard the revving of an engine and walked around front. After seeing a black BMW spinning and racing its tires, the officer said he walked toward the vehicle. Martel said when McKay and another man saw him approaching, “they knowingly advised the driver to flee.”
Martel said when he ordered one of the men to put his hands behind his back and told him he was under arrest, the man tensed up. When he tried to run, Martel said he struck the man twice in the head with his elbow before subduing him enough to handcuff him.
As that was happening, according to Martel, McKay resisted arrest by grabbing onto the open window of his vehicle with enough force to shatter the glass. The officer said two loaded handguns were found inside McKay’s vehicle, though he was legally licensed to carry and the guns were determined to be his.
The video clips released to Channel 10 don’t show much and appear to be heavily edited. In one of the two brief clips an officer can be seen sitting on top of a man and seems to have him under control. It isn’t clear if the man is McKay. In the other clip, the man is lying on his back surrounded by several officers while he’s being handcuffed.
A law enforcement source with knowledge of the incident said the department opened an internal affairs investigation into the use-of-force exerted by the officers back in March. It wasn’t clear whether the city began the probe on its own or began looking into it after someone filed a complaint.
The firings come as thousands of people continue to march for police reform after the May 25 death of Floyd, 41, after Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was videotaped with his knee pressed into the back of Floyd’s neck for almost nine minutes. Chauvin has been charged with second-degree murder.
The marches and rhetoric have created a tense stand-off between law enforcement and those expressing the need for change in how police deal with force when it comes to the Black community. Locally, some departments, like Miami-Dade and Hialeah, quickly did away with a controversial neck restraint that had been allowed under their policies.
The protests have also had massive political implications, with some cities discussing ways to reinvent police departments and the way they operate. Suggestions have ranged from reallocating resources to social workers to removing some of the military-style weapons departments have stockpiled since the Middle East wars.
And even as most police unions continue to fight off the calls for change, mayors and police chiefs under intense pressure have been quick to fire or suspend officers implicated in excessive uses of force.
PBA President Steadman Stahl said he fears the firings of the Miami Gardens officers might be a political ploy, though he wouldn’t go into detail.
“If the department is going to release drips and drabs of it [the video], why not release everything,” said Stahl. “We’re not getting any information from Miami Gardens.”
Miami Gardens is Florida’s largest black majority city. And police interactions with the Black community have become a central point for those running in the August primary to be the Miami-Dade County commissioner who represents the district. That’s because Miami Gardens Mayor Oliver Gilbert’s main competition for the seat is Sybrina Fulton, a leading social justice activist who lost her 17-year-old son to gunfire in a high-profile incident that President Barack Obama discussed with the nation almost a decade ago.
Trayvon Martin was 17 and unarmed when he got into a scuffle with white community watchman George Zimmerman. The incident paved the way for almost a decade of protests over unarmed Blacks killed by mostly white police and security guards. Martin was making his way home from the store to his father’s Sanford, Fla., home when he got into a scuffle with Zimmerman that was, in part, captured on surveillance video.
Zimmerman was acquitted at trial.
This story was originally published June 22, 2020 at 4:54 PM.
