Miami-Dade police and prosecutors are investigating the fatal shooting of an unarmed man by a Homestead police officer who was responding to a disturbance call at a small grocery.
Some witnesses said the officer didn't have to shoot. Homestead police said the man, identified as Jason Williams, 28, refused an order to leave the front of the grocery and then resisted arrest.
The officer, Anthony Green, 33, an 11-year-veteran, was placed on administrative duty, a routine procedure when an officer fires a weapon, Homestead police said.
According to the police news release, Williams was outside Mike's Grocery at 33 SW Eighth St. Thursday morning when Green arrived in response to a disturbance call and ordered him off the property. The two men struggled, and Green fired a shot that struck Williams in the lower abdomen.
Williams, who had finished a jail stint on a drug charge less than a week earlier, was airlifted to Jackson Memorial Hospital's Ryder Trauma Center in Miami, where he was pronounced dead.
Green was not injured.
Miami-Dade homicide detectives and the state attorney's office are overseeing the investigation.
Miami-Dade homicide Sgt. Julio Padron said Green drew his weapon and fired a single shot at Williams during the struggle. He would not discuss the shooting further pending interviews with Green and witnesses.
The incident began at 9:57 a.m. when Homestead police received reports of a disturbance outside the grocery store. Calls to police said a man in a white shirt was causing a ruckus, said Capt. Ed Bowe, the department's spokesman.
When Green arrived at the store, he approached Williams, who was wearing a white shirt and fit the callers' description, Bowe said.
``The officer ordered him to leave the premises,'' said Bowe, who alleged that Williams refused and became belligerent.
As Green tried to handcuff and arrest the five-foot-10, 125-pound Williams, the pair began to fight, Bowe said.
``The officer was thrown about by the subject,'' Bowe said. ``During the physical confrontation, the officer's gun was fired.''
OTHER PERSPECTIVES
Witnesses painted a different portrait.
Kim Thomas, who said she watched the struggle from her car, said she saw Williams sitting by an ice chest counting money when the officer walked toward the store and told him to either go inside or leave.
When he didn't get up right away, ``the officer grabbed Williams by the shirt and told him, `I'm placing you under arrest,' '' she said.
During the fight, the officer kicked Williams in the groin a couple of times and then pushed Williams back and reached for his gun, Thomas said.
``I don't see why it got physical,'' Thomas said. ``He wasn't doing anything, except sitting in front of the store.''
Another witness, Sol Herrera, made a similar assertion in an interview with WFOR-CBS4. Asked if she thought the shooting was justified, Herrera said: ``No, of course not. I don't think it was.''
FAMILY ANGERED
Williams was an unemployed construction worker and father of four. His relatives expressed sadness and anger over the shooting death.
Standing outside the family's nearby restaurant, Raymundo's, Patsy Kerr described her brother as a loner who would rather give in to police than fight.
``As soon as the police would come around and say, `Is Jason Williams here?' he'd do this,'' Kerr said, throwing her arms in the air as if surrendering. ``He died for nothing.''
Kerr was close to her brother. She brought him to Homestead from the Bahamas when he was 7 months old and raised him as if he was her son.
Sheila Whitehead, Williams' niece, said her uncle wasn't a violent man.
``He weighed 125 pounds. He could do no harm to an 11-year police veteran,'' she said. ``I want the officer to tell me what did Jason do that threatened him so.''
Following the shooting, tempers flared briefly. Whitehead said family members and residents gathered near the store and were kept back by the crime-scene tape.
``People got rowdy, but my mother told them to calm down, that she didn't want Jason remembered with a disturbance,'' Whitehead said.
The family left the scene without incident.
``We told the officer if they wanted to talk to us they could reach us at the restaurant, but no one has tried to talk to us about what happened,'' Whitehead said.
The family said Williams had problems. Whitehead said her uncle had just finished drug rehabilitation in jail.
Miami-Dade court records show Williams had several run-ins with the law. In January, he was convicted of cocaine possession, loitering and trespassing. He was released Saturday from Metro West, said corrections spokeswoman Janelle Hall.
Thursday night, the family was mourning the loss of their loved one.
Whitehead said she was convinced Williams was trying to piece his life back together, taking to heart his time in rehab.
``He was doing OK,'' she said. ``My mother had bought him new tennis shoes Wednesday and taken them to him. He was wearing them when he died.''
She said that was a good sign. ``You know, if he had been on drugs like in the old days, he would have sold those shoes right away for cash,'' Whitehead said.
Williams' family and friends insisted the officer could have used nonlethal means to control Williams.
``All the weapons police have - pepper spray, Tasers, billy club - and Jason was unarmed,'' said family friend Gary Johnson.
Shomari Stone , a reporter with Herald news partner WFOR-CBS4, contributed to this report.
Copyright (c) 2005 The Miami Herald
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POLICE SHOOTING OUTCRY
POLICE SHOOTING BRINGS OUTCRY
Miami Herald, The (FL) - May 13, 2005
Author: BROOKE PRESCOTT AND LUISA YANEZ.
Shomari Stone , a reporter with Herald news partner WFOR-CBS4, contributed to this report.
Shomari Stone , a reporter with Herald news partner WFOR-CBS4, contributed to this report.