Officer Olivier Gonzalez stopped Cooper for dashing and what seemed to be illegally tinted home windows round 4:30 within the afternoon, based on police. As captured on the officer’s body-worn digital camera, Gonzalez requested the 34-year-old to step out of the automotive after he admitted he did not have a drivers license. Cooper, a Black man with lengthy dreadlocks, exited the pink Nissan and was patted down by Gonzalez earlier than attempting to interrupt free.
That’s when the digital camera falls to the bottom and a single gunshot is heard within the background. It was fired off by Sgt. Constant Rosemond, who discharged his weapon at Cooper upon arriving on the scene to seek out him struggling with Gonzalez. A 9mm pistol allegedly belonging to Cooper was discovered on the road a number of ft away from his physique.
The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office introduced in January following a nine-month probe that it will not be urgent fees in opposition to Rosemond, deeming it “cheap for him to imagine that lethal pressure was vital to forestall imminent loss of life or nice bodily hurt to himself or Officer Gonzalez.”
Cooper’s mom Talisha has challenged that narrative ever since.
She is now suing the City of Miami and Rosemond in federal court docket, laying out her household’s long-held stance that Cooper was clearly unarmed throughout the incident and posed no fast menace to police.
The household says that within the aftermath of the taking pictures, the Miami Police Department falsely acknowledged that Rosemond opened hearth as a result of he noticed Cooper armed with a gun. In actuality, the household claims, neither of the officers noticed the pistol in Cooper’s possession amid the tussle.
“Nobody… was in imminent hazard of great bodily hurt or loss of life till Sgt. Rosemond got here on the scene and unlawfully shot Antwon,” the wrongful loss of life lawsuit filed March 13 by Cooper’s household alleges. “Sgt. Rosemond was the hazard.”
According to the lawsuit, as a substitute of utilizing lethal pressure as a final resort, Rosemond used it as his first possibility “lower than one minute” after arriving, as proven by body-cam footage. The household claims that Cooper by no means punched or struck Gonzalez throughout the encounter and was not attempting to harm officers.Â
“In truth, Rosemond was shut sufficient to have merely assisted Gonzalez to subdue Antwon,” the lawsuit alleges.
Neither a City of Miami spokesperson nor a Miami police union consultant has responded to New Times‘ requests for remark.
The state legal professional’s workplace claims footage of the incident exhibits the Hellcat pistol (which the memo identifies as Cooper’s) was not within the roadway earlier than the tussle — which means it was dropped throughout the wrestle.
But the lawsuit raises questions concerning the origins of the gun, claiming it didn’t seem in any photographs close to Cooper’s physique. The gun was by no means seen in Cooper’s possession in body-cam footage, surveillance footage, or by eyewitnesses, the household says.
A Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation confirmed that it was solely after Rosemond shot Cooper that witnesses noticed the pistol, which by then was mendacity on the concrete, based on the lawsuit.Â
“That gun was not traced to Antwon, nor conclusively matched to Antwon,” it reads.
Prosecutors keep Rosemond pulled as much as discover “Gonzalez and Cooper engaged in a violent wrestle,” and that he opened hearth after seeing Cooper “on prime of Gonzalez, as Gonzalez struggled to maintain management of Cooper’s fingers.” The memo describes Rosemond’s determination to shoot as “cheap and legally justified.”
According to prosecutors, the pistol was on the bottom in view of Rosemond when he arrived on the scene and found the 2 males locked in a wrestle.
Rosemond, a Black officer who has labored for the Miami Police Department for 15 years, didn’t present a proper assertion within the state legal professional’s workplace probe into the taking pictures.
Investigators collected DNA swabs on the pistol, however the state legal professional’s workplace redacted the outcomes from its memo on account of a Florida DNA-privacy regulation.
The Cooper household’s legal professional Rawsi Williams claims the outcomes had been a “low partial” match to Cooper. In an announcement, Williams says police are utilizing the gun as “a red-herring distraction” to attract consideration away from the truth that Cooper was unarmed when he was shot. She has known as for Rosemond’s arrest and an apology from the state legal professional’s workplace.
“[Antwon] and his fiancé won’t ever be married. He won’t ever have kids. His household won’t ever have grandchildren or great-children from Antwon… They misplaced the companionship of their son for his or her lives,” the lawsuit states.