Family of woman accidentally killed by Miami police at Wynwood club files suit
The family of a woman who was shot dead by Miami police officers who were firing at someone else outside a Wynwood nightclub last summer is suing the department, the city, the club and the security company that was working that night.
Evelyn Caridad Valdes was sitting in the backseat of a Mazda SUV stuck in traffic outside the Electric Lady nightclub at 144 Northwest 23rd Street around 3:05 a.m. on Saturday, June 14, 2025, when she was shot in the torso.
Her friend in the front passenger seat was grazed in the leg by another bullet, according to the lawsuit filed Friday in U.S. Southern District Court.
The bullets that struck the car were fired by Miami police officers, the only ones who discharged weapons during the chaotic aftermath of a fight that started inside the club, according to the lawsuit.
Valdes, a social worker for Baptist Health, was celebrating her 28th birthday with three of her friends. They got to the club around 2 a.m. but left less than an hour later because other patrons inside were getting “rowdy and aggressive,” attorneys Ramon Rasco and Angelo Martin wrote in the lawsuit.
READ MORE: ‘Tell me what happened’: Family of woman killed in Wynwood cop shooting seeks answers
As the women sat in traffic in the 2021 Mazda CX-5, a fight inside the club spilled out of the side entrance. Two men, Norman Lindo Jr. and Santiago Hernaiz, who were part of two separate groups arguing with each other, were pushing and shoving each other. Lindo went back inside the club, which was now closed, and came outside holding a gun in his right hand, pointing it at the ground, according to the lawsuit.
Officer Dorian Acosta and Sgt. Javier Herbello were standing outside the club, but did not do anything to stop the fight, attorneys say.
Security-camera footage, which the law firm of Podhurst/Orseck provided to the Miami Herald, shows the two officers standing outside the club as the crowd comes out and traffic slowly passes by. They are standing on the right side of a parallel-parked white car.
Moments later, two men — Lindo, wearing white, and Hernaiz, wearing black — burst out of the club, pushing each other into the street and to the left side of the parked car.
An officer standing to the rear of the parked car holds his handgun over the roof of the parked car and opens fire. The lawsuit says that is Sgt. Herbello. The other officer, pointing his weapon over the windshield, also begins to shoot as Lindo runs. The officers keep firing as they rotate left to right, and Lindo collapses, the video shows.
Right before the officers began shooting, the Mazda is seen in the video driving from behind the parked car to the front before moving out of the security camera’s view.
The complaint argues the officers fired “knowing the Mazda was there, and they shot directly at it because Lindo was adjacent to it,” the complaint states. In all, the lawsuit states the officers fired 10-11 bullets.
Lindo was dead. The complaint says he never pointed his gun at anyone.
According to the lawsuit, there was another casualty, the club’s then-manager, John Fortini. He was shot in the left hand by an officer who was standing next to him outside the front entrance of the club. The officer fired a shot as he unholstered his weapon while Acosta and Herbello were shooting at Lindo, according to the lawsuit.
Hernaiz was not hit by any of the gunfire.
The lawsuit, which seeks punitive and compensatory damages “in excess of $300,000” as well as attorneys’ fees, argues the officers never announced themselves or told Lindo to drop his weapon as they shot at him, disregarding the danger presented to any bystanders.
“When you discharge your firearm, you have to understand where your bullets are going to go,” Martin told reporters during a Zoom briefing on Friday. “Not just your target, but beyond your target.”
The attorneys, hired by Valdes’ mother, Kristy Dee Garcia, said the Miami Police Department has not handed over to them any evidence, including an unredacted incident report, witness statements or officers’ body camera footage.
The reason, the department said, is because investigations by its Internal Affairs detectives, as well as investigations from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office have not been completed.
The lawsuit also includes the company that owns Electric Lady, 144 NW 23rd Street Group, LLC, and the company providing security that night, VIP Security Florida. The complaint states security guards failed to search patrons for weapons and allowed Lindo to re-enter the club after it closed, which is when Lindo retrieved a gun.
Also named in the suit is the city of Miami because the family said Fire Rescue paramedics took too long to treat Valdes before getting her to a hospital.
The club owners and the security company could not be reached for comments. The city of Miami acknowledged it received a request for comments on the lawsuit from the Herald. The Miami Police Department did not respond to an emailed request for comments.
According to the complaint, one of Valdes’ friends in the car called 911 at 3:06 a.m. to report Valdes was seriously wounded, but two ambulances drove past them at the intersection where they were stopped and went to the club instead. An officer checked her out and radioed that she needed immediate aid at 3:08 a.m., telling the dispatcher her location, the complaint states, adding that other officers would not let Valdes’ friends tend to her.
“While critical minutes passed, responding MPD officers directed Evelyn’s friends away from the Mazda and prevented them from rendering aid or observing Evelyn’s condition,” Rasco and Martin wrote in the complaint.
A third ambulance crew arrived to treat Valdes at 3:25 a.m., according to the complaint, but did not drive her to Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital, which is only 1.3 miles away, until 3:38 a.m.
“Evelyn was immediately received by the trauma team, who performed extensive lifesaving procedures, but Evelyn tragically succumbed to the injuries caused by Officer Defendants and was declared deceased at 04:00:00, just 20 minutes after arriving at Ryder,” the complaint states.
This story was originally published July 10, 2026 at 4:55 PM.
