Did an Opa-locka police captain Taser his own officer in an argument? City launches probes
Did an Opa-locka police captain, after a shouting match, really Taser one of his subordinates — in the back, no less?
The city has ordered a preliminary investigation and the Opa-locka Police Department has internal affairs detectives looking into the allegation, which emerged in an anonymous encrypted email sent to elected leaders, state police, and even the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office.
So far, said City Manager John Pate, it doesn’t look like the incident last week in the department went quite as described in the email. “It’s being analyzed,” he said. “But the city is certain, through preliminary means, that the actual Taser discharge using a live Taser discharge was not done.”
The city does, however, have new Taser 7 stun guns that can be equipped with what is known as a “hook-and-loop” cartridge that does not deploy an electrical charge. Axon, the company that produces the ubiquitous Taser stun gun, says the cartridge — which shoots hooks tipped with Velcro — is supposed to be used for training, on someone wearing a special protective suit.
Pate and Opa-locka Police Chief Steven Barreira would not say whether the cartridge was used. “We don’t know,” Barreira said. “That would be part of the investigation.”
It was unclear how painful, if at all, getting struck by the training hooks actually is. But the anonymous letter alleged that the sergeant who was shot sought medical treatment.
Still, the allegations, which involve a captain once fired for his role in a police chase that led to a horrific traffic accident, have had ripple effects all the way to City Hall.
Pate, for instance, made the whole messy story public near the end of a city commission meeting Wednesday night. Though he never specifically mentioned the Taser allegation, he brought up another juicy section of the memo that suggested he was leading a cover-up of the incident.
He denied a memo claim that he was actually running the embattled police department and had threatened retaliation against anyone who publicized the allegation involving the two officers. The discussion sparked a tense exchange between Pate and Mayor Matthew Pigatt, with the mayor at one point accepting Pate’s resignation — even though he never technically offered it.
The two-page memo mainly focused on Capt. Sergio Perez and Sgt. Michael Steel. Perez made headlines in 2013 when a city investigation found he chased a vehicle the wrong way down Interstate 95, before the car he was chasing slammed into an SUV, killing four tourists. He was fired two years later and reinstated after an arbiter ruled the city’s probe into a car accident he was involved in was flawed.
Perez, a corporal at the time, has risen through the ranks in the past half-decade.
The Miami Herald obtained a copy of the memo, which claims the clash between the two took place at about 2 p.m. on Sept. 2 in the officers’ area of the police department.
It reads a bit like a police incident report: “Capt. [Sergio] Perez and Sgt. [Michael] Steel got into a verbal argument in the presence of the squad. At which point Capt. Perez pulled his Taser and pointed it at Sgt. Steel. At that point Sgt. Steel started to walk away and Capt. Perez shot his Taser at Sgt. Steel and hit him in the back with the Taser...”
Perez, reached by phone Thursday, referred a reporter to the city’s public information officer. Asked about allegations he shot another officer with a Taser, he said: “That never happened” but declined to answer further questions.
Barreira, in an interview Thursday, said there was no evidence that a regular Taser had been employed. Those devices, designed to subdue suspects used on the street with a powerful electric charge, produce confetti-like streamers when discharged.
Meanwhile, the email claims that Steel and the squad were warned that if the incident were reported, there would be terminations. It also claimed the police department is run by the city manager — described as the “quasi” head of public safety — not the police chief, Barreira.
The chief said that as of Thursday only one of the two men involved in the alleged incident had been interviewed by detectives. An internal affairs investigation had begun. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement acknowledged it received the email, but declined to say whether an investigation has been opened.
During Wednesday night’s heated discussion, Pate told commissioners he would resign “and leave here if any of the allegations are true” — a reference to allegations that he had ordered a cover-up.
“The biggest concern I have is anonymous emails going out,” said Pate. “Every allegation will be investigated.”
Commissioner Sherlean Bass, one of the commissioner who received the email, said she “can only hope to God what I’m hearing from the city manager is true.”
Pate has claimed the recent hiring of Barreira has the department moving in the right direction.
“We’re working hard to get rid of this cloud of misjudgment from the city,” said Pate. “We’ve been moving past that the past two years.”
Opa-locka has struggled through financial and political scandals in the last few years and the police department in particular has been underfunded. In 2016, then-Gov. Rick Scott declared a financial emergency within the city and a state-appointed financial oversight board was created. Last year state lawmakers who saw little improvement drafted a bill that would have compelled residents to vote on whether or not to dissolve the city. The bill stalled in the Legislature.
The city’s police officers continue to be the lowest paid in Miami-Dade County. They use old and sometimes outdated equipment and vehicles, and three years ago the department had to look for a new home when the old one began to crumble and became infested with mold.
This story was originally published September 10, 2021 at 2:13 PM.
